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EKASMUS    DAEWIN 


By  ERNST  KRAUSE. 


TRANSLATED  FROM  lEE  GERMAN  BY  W.  S.  DALLAS. 


WITH  A  PRELIMINARY  NOTICE 


By   CHARLES    DARWIN. 


PORTRAIT  AND    WOODCUTS. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.  APPLETON  AND   COMPANY, 

1,  3,  AND  5   BOND   STREET. 

18S0. 


PREFACE. 


-•c*- 


In  the  February  number,  1879,  of  a  well- 
known  German  scientific  journal,  *  Kosmos,' 
Dr.  Ernst  Krause  published  a  sketch  of  the  life 
of  Erasmus  Darwin,  the  author  of  the  *  Zoo- 
nomia,'  *  Botanic  Garden,'  and  other  works. 
This  article  bears  the  title  of  a  *  Contribution 
to  the  history  of  the  Descent-Theory ; '  and 
Dr.  Krause  has  kindly  allowed  my  brother 
Erasmus  and  myself  to  have  a  translation 
made  of  it  for  publication  in  this  country.* 

As  I  have  private  materials  for  adding  to 
the  knowledge  of  Erasmus  Darwin's  character, 
I  have  written  a  preliminary  notice.  These 
materials  consist  of  a  large  collection  of  letters 
written  by  him ;  of  his  common-place  book 
in  folio,  in  the  possession  of  his  grandson 
Reginald  Darwin ;  of  some  notes  made  shortly 

*  Mr.  Dallas  has  undertaken  the  translation,  and  his  scientific 
reputation,  together  with  his  knowledge  of  German,  is  a 
guarantee  for  its  accuracy. 


IV  PREFACE. 

after  his  death,  by  my  father,  Dr.  Eobert 
Darwin,  together  with  what  little  I  can 
clearly  remember  that  my  father  said  about 
him ;  also  some  statements  by  his  daughter, 
Yioletta  Darwin,  afterwards  Mrs.  Tertius 
G-alton,  written  down  at  the  time  by  her 
daughters;  and  various  short  published  notices. 
To  these  must  be  added  the  '  Memoirs  of  the 
Life  of  Dr.  Darwin,'  by  Miss  Seward,  which 
appeared  in  1804;  and  a  lecture  by  Dr.  Dowson 
on  ''  Erasmus  Darwin,  Philosopher,  Poet, 
and  Physician,"  published  in  1861,  which 
contains  many  useful  references  and  remarks.* 

*  Since  the  publication  of  Di-.  Krause's  article,  Mr.  Butler's 
work,  *  Evolution,  Old  and  New,  1879,'  has  appeared,  and  this 
includes  an  account  of  Dr.  Darwin's  life,  compiled  frofn  the  two 
hooks  just  mentioned,  and  of  his  views  on  evolution. 


PKELIMINARY   NOTICE. 


Erasmus  Darwin  was  descended  from  a 
Lincolnshire  family,  and  the  first  of  his 
ancestors  of  whom  we  know  anything  was 
William  Darwin,  who  possessed  a  small  estate 
at  Cleatham.*  He  was  also  yeoman  of  the 
armoury  of  Greenwich  to  James  I.  and 
Charles  I.  This  office  was  probably  almost  a 
sinecure,  and  certainly  of  very  small  value. 
He  died  in  1644,  and  we  have  reason  to 
believe  from  gout.  It  is,  therefore,  probable 
that  Erasmus,  as  well  as  many  other  members 
of  the  family,  inherited  from  this  William,  or 
some  of  his  predecessors,  their  strong  ten- 
dency to  gout ;  and  it  was  an  early  attack 
of  gout  which  made  Erasmus  a  vehement 
advocate  for  temperance  throughout  his  whole 
life. 

*  The  greater  part  of  the  estate  of  Cleatham  was  sold  in  17 GO. 
A  cottage  with  thick  walls,  some  fish-ponds  and  old  trees,  alone 
show  where  the  "Old  Hall"  once  stood.  A  field  is  still  called 
the  "  Darwin  Charity,"  from  being  subject  to  a  charge,  made  by 
the  second  Mrs.  Darwin,  for  buying  gowns  for  four  old  widows 
every  year. 


2  LIFE    OF 

The  second  William  Darwin  (born  1620) 
served  as  Captain-Lieutenant  in  Sir  W. 
Pelham's  troop  of  horse,  and  fought  for  the 
king.  His  estate  was  sequestrated  by  the 
Parliament,  but  he  was  afterwards  pardoned 
on  payment  of  a  heavy  fine.  In  a  petition 
to  Charles  II.  he  speaks  of  his  almost  utter 
ruin  from  having  adhered  to  the  royal  cause, 
and  it  appears  that  he  had  become  a  barrister. 
This  circumstance  probably  led  to  his  marry- 
ing the  daughter  of  Erasmus  Earle,  Serjeant- 
at-law;  and  hence  Erasmus  Darwin  derived 
his  Christian  name. 

The  eldest  son  from  this  marriage,  William 
(born  1655),  married  the  heiress  of  Robert 
Waring,  of  Wilsford,  in  the  county  of  Not- 
tingham. This  lady  also  inherited  the  manor 
of  Elston,  which  has  remained  ever  since  in 
the  family. 

This  third  William  Darwin  had  two  sons 
— William,  and  Robert  who  was  educated 
as  a  barrister,  and  who  was  the  father  of 
Erasmus.  I  suppose  that  the  Cleatham  and 
the  Waring  properties  were  left  to  William, 
who  seems  to  have  followed  no  profession, 
and  the   Elston  estate  to  Robert;  for  when 


ERASMUS    DARWiy. 


4  LIFE   OF 

the  latter  married,  he  gave  up  his  profession 
and  lived  ever  afterwards  at  Elston.  There  is 
a  portrait  of  him  at  Elston  Hall,  and  he  looks? 
with  his  great  wig  and  bands,  like  a  dignified 
doctor  of  divinity.  He  seems  to  have  had  some 
taste  for  science,  for  he  was  an  early  member 
of  the  well-known  Spalding  Club ;  and  the 
celebrated  antiquary,  Dr.  Stukeley,  in  '  An 
account  of  the  almost  entire  Sceleton  of  a  large 
animal,'  &c.,  published  in  the  'Philosophical 
Transactions,'  April  and  May  1719,  begins 
his  paper  as  follows  : — "  Having  an  account 
"  from  my  friend,  Robert  Darwin,  Esq.,  of 
"  Lincoln's  Inn,  a  Person  of  Curiosity,  of  a 
"  human  Sceleton  impressed  in  Stone,  found 
"  lately  by  the  Rector  of  Elston,"  &c.  Stukeley 
then  speaks  of  it  as  a  great  rarity,  "  the  like 
"  whereof  has  not  been  observed  before  in  this 
"  island,  to  my  knowledge."  Judging  from 
a  sort  of  litany  written  by  Robert,  and  handed 
down  in  the  family,  he  was  a  strong  advocate 
of  temperance,  which  his  son  ever  afterwards 
so  strongly  advocated  : — 

From  a  morning  that  doth  shine. 
From  a  boy  that  drinketh  wine. 
From  a  wife  that  talketh  Latine, 
Good  Lord  deliver  me. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  5 

It  is  suspected  that  the  third  line  may  be 
accounted  for  by  his  wife,  the  mother  of 
Erasmus,  having  been  a  very  learned  lady. 

The  eldest  son  of  Robert,  christened  Robert 
Waring,  succeeded  to  the  estate  of  Elston,  and 
died  there  at  the  age  of  ninety-two,  a  bachelor. 
He  had  a  strong  taste  for  poetry,  like  his 
youngest  brother  Erasmus.  Robert  also  culti- 
vated botany,  and  when  an  oldish  man,  he 
published  his  '  Principia  Botanica.'  This 
book  in  MS.  was  beautifully  written,  and  my 
father  declared  that  he  believed  it  was  pub- 
lished because  his  old  uncle  could  not  endure 
that  such  fine  calligraphy  should  be  wasted. 
But  this  was  hardly  just,  as  the  work  con- 
tains many  curious  notes  on  biology — a  sub- 
ject wholly  neglected  in  England  in  the  last 
century.  The  public^,  moreover,  aj^preciated 
the  book,  as  the  coj^y  in  my  possession  is  the 
third  edition. 

Of  the  second  son,  William  Alvey,  1  know 
nothing.  A  third  son,  John,  became  the  rector 
of  Elston,  the  living  being  in  the  gift  of  the 
family.  The  fourth  son,  and  the  youngest 
of  the  children,  was  Erasmus,  the  subject  of 
the  present  memoir,  who  was  born  on  the 
12th  Dec.  1Y31,  at  Elston  Hall. 


6  LIFE    OP 

His  elder  brother,  Robert,  states,  in  a  letter 
to  my  father  (May  19,  1802),  that  Erasmus 
"was  always  fond  of  poetry.  He  was  also 
"  always  fond  of  mechanicks.  I  remember 
"  him  when  very  young  making  an  ingenious 
'*  alarum  for  his  watch  (clock  ?) ;  he  used  also 
"  to  show  little  experiments  in  electricity 
"  with  a  rude  apparatus  he  then  invented 
"  with  a  bottle."  The  same  tastes,  therefore, 
appeared  very  early  in  life  which  prevailed 
to  the  day  of  his  death.  "  He  had  always  a 
*'  dislike  to  much  exercise  and  rural  diver- 
"  sions,  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that 
"  we  could  ever  persuade  him  to  accompany 

"  US. 

When  ten  years  old  (1741),  he  was  sent  to 
Chesterfield  School,  where  he  remained  for 
nine  years.  His  sister,  Susannah,  wrote  to 
him  at  school  in  1748,  and  I  give  part  of  the 
letter  as  a  curiosity.  She  was  then  a  young 
lady  between  eighteen  and  nineteen  years 
old.  She  died  unmarried,  and  her  nephew, 
Dr.  Robert  Darwin  (my  father),  who  was 
deeply  attached  to  her,  always  spoke  of  her 
as  the  very  pattern  of  an  old  lady,  so  nice 
looking,  so  gentle,  kind,  and  charitable,  and 
passionately  fond  of  flowers.     The  first  part 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  7 

of  her  letter  consists  of  gossip  aud  family 
news,  and  is  not  worth  giving. 

Susannah  Darwin  to  Erasmus. 

Dear  Brother, 

I  come  now  to  y®  chief  design  of  my  Letter,  and 
that  is  to  acquaint  you  with  my  Ahstinence  this  Leut, 
which  you  will  find  on  y®  other  side,  it  being  a  strict 
account  of  y®  first  5  days,  and  all  y®  rest  has  been 
conformable  thereto ;  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from 
you  w*^  an  account  of  your  temperance  this  lent, 
w^*^  I  expect  far  exceeds  mine.  As  soon  as  we  kill 
our  hog  I  intend  to  take  part  thereof  with  y®  Family, 
for  I'm  informed  by  a  learned  Divine  y*^  Hogs  Flesh 
is  Fish,  and  has  been  so  ever  since  y®  Devil  entered 
into  y™  and  they  ran  into  y®  Sea ;  if  you  and  the  rest 
of  the  Casuists  in  your  neighbourhood  are  of  y*^ 
same  oppinion,  it  will  be  a  greater  satisfaction  to 
me,  in  resolving  so  knotty  a  point  of  Conscience. 
This  being  all  at  present  1  conclude  with  all  our 
dues  to  you  and  Bro"^. 

Your  afiectionate  sister, 

S.  Darwin. 

A  Diary  in  Lent. 

Elston,  Fth.  20,  1748. 
Feb^y  8  Wednesday  Morning  a  little  before 
seven  1  got  up  ;  said  my  Prayers  ;  worked  till  eight ; 


8  LIFE   OF 

y°  took  a  walk,  came  in  again  and  eate  a  farthing 
Loaf,  y°  dress'd  me,  red  a  Chapter  in  y®  Bible,  and 
spun  till  One,  y°  dined  temperately  viz :  on  Puddin, 
Bread  and  Cheese ;  spun  again  till  Fore,  took  a  walk, 
y°  spun  till  half  an  hour  past  Five ;  eat  an  Apple, 
Chattered  round  y®  Fire ;  and  at  Seven  a  little  boyl'd 
Milk;  and  y°  (takeing  my  leave  of  Cards  y®  night 
before)  spun  till  nine ;  drank  a  Glass  of  Wine  for  y® 
Stomack  sake ;  and  at  Ten  retired  into  my  Chamber 
to  Prayers ;  drew  up  my  Clock  and  set  my  Larum 
betwixt  Six  and  Seven. 

Thursday  call'd  up  to  Prayers,  by  my  Larum.; 
spun  till  Eight,  collected  y®  Hens'  Eggs ;  breakfasted 
on  Oat  Cake,  and  Balm  Tea ;  y°  dress'd  and  spun  till 
One,  Pease  Porrage,  Pottatoes  and  Apple  Pye ;  y^ 
turned  over  a  few  pages  in  Scribelerus ;  eat  an  Apple 
and  got  to  my  work  ;  at  Seven  got  Apple  Pye  and 
Milk,  half  an  hour  after  eight  red  in  y*"  Tatlar  and 
at  Ten  withdrew  to  Prayers ;  slept  sound ;  rose 
before  Seven ;  eat  a  Pear ;  breakfast  a  quarter  past 
Eight ;  fed  y®  Cats,  went  to  Church ;  at  One  Pease 
Porrage,  Puddin,  Bread  and  Cheese  ;  Fore  Mrs.  Chap- 
pells  came,  Five  drank  Tea ;  Six  eat  half  an  Apple ; 
Seven  a  Porrenge  of  Boyl'd  Milk  ;  red  in  y^  Tatlar ; 
at  Eight  a  Glass  of  Punch  ;  filled  up  ye  vacancies  of 
y®  day  with  woik  as  before. 

Saturday  Clock  being  too  slow  lay  rather  longar 
y"  usal ;  said  my  Prayers ;  and  breakfasted  at 
Eight ;  at  One  broth,  Pudding,  Brocoli  and  Eggs,  and 


ERASiMUS    DARWIN^.  9 

Apple  Pye ;  at  Five  an  Apple ;  seven  Aj^ple  Pye, 
Bread  and  Batter;  at  Nine  a  Glass  of  Wine  ;  at  Ten 
Prayers. 

Sunday  breakfast  at  Eight;  at  Ten  went  to  y* 
Chappell;  12  Dumplin,  red  Herring,  Bread  and 
Cheese  ;  two  to  y®  Church  ;  read  a  Lent  Sermon  at 
Six ;  and  at  Seven  Appel  Pye  Bread  and  Cheese. 

Excuse  hast,  being  very  cold. 

Erasmus,  ^tat.  16,  to  Susannah  Darwin. 

Dear  Sister, 

I  received  yours  about  a  fortnight  after  y^  date 
y'  I  must  begg  to  be  excused  for  not  answering  it 
sooner :  besides  I  have  some  substantial  Reasons,  as 
having  a  mind  to  see  Lent  almost  expired,  before  I 
would  vouch  for  my  Abstinence  throughout  y° 
whole:  and  not  having  had  a  convenient  oppertunity 
to  consult  a  Synod  of  my  learned  friends  about  your 
ingenious  Conscience,  and  I  must  inform  you  we 
unanimously  agree  in  y®  Opinion  of  y^  Learned 
Divine  you  mention,  that  Swine  may  indeed  be  fish 
but  then  they  are  a  devillish  sort  of  fish  ;  and  we  can 
prove  from  y®  same  Authority  that  all  fish  is  flesh 
whence  we  affirm  Povck  not  only  to  be  flesh  but  a 
devillish  Sort  of  flesh;  and  I  would  advise  yuu  for 
Conscience  sake  altogether  to  abstain  from  tasting  it ; 
as  I  can  assure  You  I  have  done,  tlio'  roast  Pork  has 
come  to  Table  several  Times ;  and  for  my  own  part 


10  LIFE   OF 

have  lived  upon  Fading,  milk,  and  vegetables  all  this 
Lent ;  but  don't  mistake  me,  I  don't  mean  I  have 
not  touch'd  roast  beef,  mutton,  veal,  goose,  fowl,  &c, 
for  what  are  all  these  ?  All  flesh  is  grass !  Was  I 
to  give  you  .a  journal  of  a  Week,  it  would  be  stuft  so 
full  of  Greek  and  Latin  as  translation  Verses,  themes^ 
annotation  Exercise  and  y®  like,  it  would  not  only  be 
very  tedious  and  insipid  but  perfectly  unintelligible 
to  any  but  Scholboys. 

I  fancy  you  forgot  in  Yours  to  inform  me  y** 
your  Cheek  was  quite  settled  by  your  Temperance, 
but  however  I  can  easily  suppose  it.  For  y®  tempe- 
rate enjoy  an  ever-blooming  Health  free  from  all  y® 
Infections  and  disorders  luxurious  mortals  are  subject 
to,  the  whimsical  Tribe  of  Phisitians  cheated  of  their 
fees  may  sit  down  in  penury  and  Want,  they  may 
curse  mankind  and  imprecate  the  Gods  and  call  down 
y*  parent  of  all  Deseases,  luxury,  to  infest  Mankind, 
luxury  more  distructive  than  y®  Sharpest  Famine ; 
tho'  all  the  Distempers  that  ever  Satan  inflicted  upon 
Job  hover  over  y®  intemperate ;  they  would  play 
harmless  round  our  Heads,  nor  dare  to  touch  a  single 
Hair.  We  should  not  meet  those  pale  thin  and 
haggard  countenances  which  every  day  present  them- 
selves to  us.  No  doubt  men  would  still  live  their 
Hunderd,  and  Methusalem  would  lose  his  Character ; 
fever  banished  from  our  Streets,  limping  Gout  would 
fly  y®  land,  and  Sedentary  Stone  would  vanish  into 
oblivion  and  death  himself  be  slain. 


ERASMUS    DARWI.^.  11 

I  could  for  ever  rail  against  Luxury,  and  for  ever 
panegyrize  upon  abstinence,  had  I  not  already  en- 
croach'd  too  far  upon  your  Patience,  but  it  being  Lent 
tbe  exercise  of  y*  Christian  virtue  may  not  be  amiss, 
so  I  shall  proceed  a  little  furder — 

[The  remainder  of  the  letter  is  hardly  legible 
or  intelligible,  with  no  signature.] 

P.S. — Excuse  Hast,  supper  being  called,  very 
Hungry. 

Judging  from  two  letters — the  first  written 
in  1749,  to  one  of  the  under-masters  during 
the  holidays,  and  the  other  to  the  head- 
master, shortly  after  he  went  to  Cambridge, 
in  1750 — he  seems  to  have  felt  a  degree 
of  respect,  gratitude,  and  affection  for  tlie 
several  masters  unusual  in  a  schoolboy.  Both 
these  letters  were  accompanied  by  an  inevit- 
able copy  of  verses,  those  addressed  to  the 
head-master  being  of  considerable  length,  and 
in  imitation  of  the  5th  Satire  of  Persius. 
His  two  elder  brothers  accompanied  him  to 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge  ;  and  this 
seems  to  have  been  a  severe  strain  on  their 
father's  income.  They  appear,  in  consequence, 
to  have  been  thrifty  and  honourably  economi- 


12  LIFE    OP 

cal ;  so  much  so  that  they  mended  their  own 
clothes  ;  and,  many  years  afterwards,  Erasmus 
boasted  to  his  second  wife  that,  if  she  cut  the 
heel  out  of  a  stocking,  he  would  put  a  new  one 
in  without  missing  a  stitch.  He  won  the 
Exeter  Scholarship  at  St.  John's,  which  was 
worth  only  £16  per  annum.  No  doubt  he 
studied  the  classics  whilst  at  Cambridge, 
for  he  did  so  to  the  end  of  his  life,  as  shown 
by  the  many  quotations  in  his  latest  work, 
'  The  Temple  of  Nature.'  He  must  also  have 
studied  mathematics  to  a  certain  extent,  for, 
when  he  took  his  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree,  in 
1754,  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  Junior  Optimes. 
Nor  did  he  neglect  medicine ;  and  he  left 
Cambridge  during  one  term  to  attend  Hunter's 
lectures  in  London.  As  a  matter  of  course, 
he  wrote  poetry  whilst  at  Cambridge,  and  a 
poem  on  '  The  Death  of  Prince  Frederick,'  in 
1751,  was  published  many  years  afterwards,  in 
1795,  in  the  European  Magazine. 

In  the  autumn  of  1754  he  went  to  Edin- 
burgh to  study  medicine,  and  while  there, 
seems  to  have  been  as  rigidly  economical  as  at 
Cambridge  ;  for  amongst  his  papers  there  is  a 
receipt  for  his  board  from  July  13th  to  October 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  13 

13th,  amounting  to  only  £6  125.  Mr.  Kelr, 
afterwards  a  distinguished  chemist,  was  at 
Edinburgh  with  him,  and  after  his  death  wrote 
to  my  father  (May  12th,  1802)  :  "  The  classical 
and  literary  attainments  which  he  had  ac- 
quired at  Cambridge  gave  him,  when  he 
came  to  Edinburgh,  together  with  his  poeti- 
cal talents  and  ready  wit,  a  distinguished 
superiority  among  the  students  there. 
Every  one  of  the  above-mentioned  Pro- 
fessors [whose  lectures  he  attended],  except- 
ing Dr.  Whytt,  had  been  a  pupil  of  the 
celebrated  Boerhaave,  whose  doctrines  were 
implicitly  adopted.  It  would  be  curious  to 
know  (but  he  alone  could  have  told  us)  the 
progress  of  your  father's  mind  from  the 
narrow  Boerhaavian  system,  in  which  man 
was  considered  as  an  hydraulic  machine 
whose  jDipes  were  filled  with  fluid  suscep- 
tible of  chemical  fermentations,  while  the 
pipes  themselves  were  liable  to  stoppages 
or  obstructions  (to  which  obstructions  and 
fermentations  all  diseases  were  imputed), 
to  the  more  enlarged  consideration  of  man 
as  a  living  heing^  which  affects  the  phenomena 
of  health  and  disease  more  than  his  merely 


14  LIFE    OF 

"  mechanical  and  chemical  properties.  It  is 
"  true  that  about  the  same  time,  Dr.  CuUen 
"  and  other  physicians  began  to  throw  off  the 
"  Boerhaavian  yoke;  but  from  the  minute 
"  observation  which  Dr.  Darwin  has  given 
"  of  the  laws  of  association,  habits  and  phe- 
"  nomena  of  animal  life,  it  is  manifest  that  his 
"  system  is  the  result  of  the  operation  of  his 

"  own  mind.'* 

* 

The  only  other  record  of  his  life  in  Edin- 
burgh which  I  possess  is  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Dr.  Okes,  of  Exeter,*  written  shortly  after 
the  death  of  his  father  (1754),  when  he  was 
twenty- three  years  old.  It  shows  his  sceptical 
frame  of  mind  whilst  he  was  quite  a  young 
man. 

Erasmus  Darwin  to  Dr.  Okes. 

"Yesterday's  post  brought  me  the  disagreeable 
news  of  my  father's  departure  out  of  this  sinful 
world. 

"  He  was  a  man  of  more  sense  than  learning ;  of 
very  great  industry  in  the  law,  even  after  he  had  no 
business,  nor  expectation  of  any.  He  was  frugal, 
but  not  covetous ;  very  tender  to  his  children,  but 

*  Published  by  one  of  his  descendants  in  the  *  Gentleman's 
Magazine,'  Oct.  1808,  vol.  Ixxviii.  pt.  ii.  p.  869. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  15 

still  kept  them  at  an  awful  kind  of  distance.  He 
passed  through  this  life  with  honesty  and  industry, 
and  brought  up  seven  healthy  children  to  follow  his 
example. 

"He  was  72  years  old,  and  died  the  20th 
of  this  current  November  1754.  '  Blessed  are  they 
that  die  in  the  Lord.' 

*'  That  there  exists  a  superior  Ens  Entium,  which 
formed  these  wonderful  creatures,  is  a  mathematical 
demonstration.  That  He  influences  things  by  a  par- 
ticular providence,  is  not  so  evident.  The  proba- 
bility, according  to  my  notion,  is  against  it,  since 
general  laws  seem  sufiScient  for  that  end.  Shall  we 
say  no  particular  providence  is  necessary  to  roll  this 
Planet  round  the  Sun,  and  yet  affirm  it  necessary 
in  turning  up  cinque  and  quatorze,  while  shaking  a 
box  of  dies  ?  or  giving  each  his  daily  bread  ?  The 
light  of  Nature  affords  us  not  a  single  argument  for 
a  future  state ;  this  is  the  only  one,  that  it  is  possible 
with  God,  since  He  who  made  us  out  of  nothing  can 
surely  re-create  us ;  and  that  He  will  do  this  is  what 
we  humbly  hope.  Hike  the  Duke  of  Buckingham's 
epitaph — *Pro  Eege  ssepe,  pro  Eepublica  semper, 
dubius,  non  improbus  vixi ;  incertus,  sed  inturbatus 
morior.  Christum  advenero,  Deo  confido  benevolenti 
et  omnipotenti.  Ens  Entium  miserere  mei  I' 

''  Erasmus  Darwin." 

The  expression  "  disag-reeable   news,"   ap- 


16  LIFE    OF 

plied  to  his  father's  death,  sounds  very  odd 
to  our  ears,  but  he  evidently  used  this  word 
where  we  should  say  "painful."  For,  in  a 
feeling  letter  to  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the  famous 
potter,  written  a  quarter  of  a  century  after- 
wards (Nov.  29tb,  1780),  about  the  death  of 
their  common  friend  Bentley,  in  which  he 
alludes  to  the  death  of  his  own  son,  he  says 
nothing  but  exertion  will  dispossess  "  the 
"  disagreeable  ideas  of  our  loss." 

In  1755  he  returned  to  Cambridge,  and 
took  his  Bachelor  of  Medicine  degree.  He 
then  again  went  to  Edinburgh,  and  early  in 
Sept.  1756,  settled  as  a  physician  in  Nottiug- 
ham.  Here,  however,  he  remained  for  only 
two  or  three  months,  as  he  got  no  patients. 
Whilst  in  Nottingham  he  wrote  several 
letters,  some  in  Latin  and  some  in  English, 
to  bis  friend,  the  son  of  the  famous  German 
philosopher,  Reimarus.*  Mechanics  and  me- 
dicine were  the  bonds  of  union  between  them. 
Erasmus  also  dedicated  a  poem  to  young 
Reimarus,  on  his  taking  bis  degree  at  Leyden 

*  I  am  much  indebted  to  a  son  of  Dr.  Sieveking,  who  brought 
to  England  the  original  letters  preserved  by  the  descendants  of 
Reimarus,  for  permitting  me  to  have  them  photographed. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  17 

in  1754.  Various  subjects  were  discussed 
between  them,  including  tlie  wildest  specula- 
tions by  Erasmus  on  the  resemblance  between 
the  action  of  the  human  soul  and  that  of  elec- 
tricity, but  the  letters  are  not  worth  pub- 
lishing. In  one  of  them  he  says :  *'  I  believe 
"  I  forgot  to  tell  how  Dr.  Hill  makes  his 
"  *  Herbal '  (a  formerly  well-known  book). 
"  He  has  got  some  wooden  plates  from  some 
"  old  herbal,  and  the  man  that  cleans  them 
"  cuts  out  one  branch  of  every  one  of  them, 
"  or  adds  one  branch  or  leaf,  to  disguise 
"  them.     This  I  have  from   my  friend   Mr. 

"  G y,  watch-maker,  to  whom  this  priiit- 

"  mender  told  it,  adding,  '  I  make  plants  now 
"  every  day  that  God  never  dreamt  of.'  "  It 
also  appears  from  one  of  his  letters  to 
Reimarus,  that  Erasmus  corresponded  at  this 
time  about  short-hand  writing  with  Guvney, 
the  author  of  a  well-known  book  on  this 
subject.  Whilst  still  young  he  filled  six 
volumes  with  short-hand  notes,  and  continued 
to  make  use  of  the  art  for  some  time. 

Several  of  the  letters  to  Reimarus  relate  to 
a  case  in  which  Dr.  Darwin  appears  to  have 
been  much  interested.     He  sent  or  helped  to 


18  LIFE   OP 

send  a  working  man  to  a  London  surgeon, 
Mr.  D.,  for  a  serious  operation.  Reimarus 
and  Dr.  Darwin  appear  to  have  had  some 
misunderstanding  with  the  surgeon,  expect- 
ing that  he  would  perform  the  operation 
gratuitously.  Dr.  Darwin  writes  to  Reimarus  : 
"I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  that  D.  took  six 
"  guineas  from  the  poor  young  man.  He 
"  has  nothing  but  what  hard  labour  gives 
"  him ;  is  much  distressed  by  this  thing 
"  costing  him  near  £30  in  all,  since  the 
"  house  where  he  lay  cheated  him  much. 
"...  When  he  returns  I  shall  send 
"  him  two  guineas.  I  beg  you  would  not 
"  mention  to  my  brother  that  I  send  this 
"  to  him."  Why  his  brother  should  not  be 
told  of  this  act  of  charity  it  is  difficult  to 
conjecture.  From  two  other  letters  it  appears 
that  Dr.  Darwin  wrote  anonymously  to  his 
friend  the  surgeon,  complaining  of  his  charge ; 
and  that  when  suspected  of  this  discreditable 
act  he  did  not  own  the  authorship  of  the 
letter.  He  wrote  to  Reimarus  (Nottingham 
Sept.  9th,  1756):  "You  say  I  am  suspected 
"  to  be  the  Author  of  it  (i.e,  the  anonymous 
"  letter),  and  next  to  me  some  malicious  per- 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  19 

son  somewhere  else,  and  that  I  am  desired 
as  I  am  a  gentleman  to  declare  concerning 
it.  First,  then,  as  I  am  upon  Honour,  I 
must  not  conceal  that  I  am  glad  there  are 
Persons  wlio  will  revenge  Faults  the  Law 
can  not  take  hold  off:  and  1  hope  Mr.  D. 
will  not  be  affronted  at  this  Declaration  ; 
since  you  say  he  did  not  know  the  Distress 
of  the  Man.  Secondly,  as  another  Person 
is  suspected,  I  will  not  say  whether  I  am 
the  Author  or  not,  since  I  don't  think  the 
Author  merits  Punishment,  for  informing 
Mr.  D.  of  a  Mistake.  You  call  the  Letter 
a  threatening  Letter,  and  afterwards  say 
the  Author  pretends  to  be  a  Friend  to 
Mr.  D.  This,  though  you  give  me  several 
particulars  of  it,  is  a  Contradiction  I  don't 
understand."  In  a  P.S.  he  adds  that  Rei- 
marus  might  show  the  letter  to  Mr.  D.  The 
anonymous  letter  answered  its  purpose,  for 
the  surgeon  returned  four  guineas,  and  Dr. 
Darwin  thought  it  probable  that  he  would 
ultimately  return  the  other  two  guineas. 

In    November    1756,    Erasmus   settled   in 
Lichfield,  and  now  his   life  may  be  said  to 


20  LIFE   OF 

have  begun  in  earnest ;  for  it  was  here,  and 
in  or  near  Derby,  to  which  place  he  removed 
in  1781,  that  he  published  all  his  works. 
Owing  to  two  or  three  very  successful  cases, 
he  soon  got  into  some  practice  at  Lichfield  as 
a  physician,  when  twenty-five  years  old.  A 
year  afterwards  (Dec.  1757)  he  married  Miss 
Mary  Howard,  aged  17-18  years,  who,  judging 
from  all  that  I  have  heard  of  her,  and  from 
some  of  her  letters,  must  have  been  a  superior 
and  charming  woman.  She  died  after  a  long 
and  suffering  illness  in  1770.  They  seem  to 
have  lived  together  most  happily  during  the 
thirteen  years  of  their  married  life,  and  she 
was  tenderly  nursed  by  her  husband  during  her 
last  illness.  Miss  Seward  gives,*  on  second- 
hand authority,  a  long  speech  of  hers,  ending 
with  the  words,  "  he  has  prolonged  my  days, 
"  and  he  has  blessed  them."  This  is  probably 
true,  but  everything  which  Mss  Seward  says 
must  be  received  with  caution;  and  it  is 
scarcely  possible  that  a  speech  of  such 
length  could  have  been  reported  with  any 
accuracy. 

The    following     letter     was     written     by 

*  *  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Dr.  Darwin,'  180i,  pp.  11-14. 


ERASMUS   DARWINT.  21 

Erasmus  four  days  before  Lis  marriage  with 
Miss  Howard. 


Erasmus  Darwin  to  Mary  Howard. 

Dear  Polly,  Darlaston,  Dec  24, 1757. 

As  I  was  turning  over  some  old  mouldy 
volumes,  that  were  laid  upon  a  Shelf  in  a  Closet  of 
my  Bed-chamber;  one  I  found,  after  blowing  the 
Dust  from  it  with  a  Pair  of  Bellows,  to  be  a  Receipt 
Book,  formerly,  no  doubt,  belonging  to  some  good 
old  Lady  of  the  Family.  The  Title  Page  (so  much 
of  it  as  the  Rats  had  left)  told  us  it  was  "  a  Bouk  off 
verry  monny  muckle  vallyed  Receipts  bouth  in 
Kookery  and  Physicks."  Upon  one  Page  was  "  To 
make  Pye-Crust," — in  another  "  To  make  Wall- 
Crust,"— "  To  make  Tarts,"— and  at  length  "To 
make  Love."  "This  Receipt,"  says  I,  "must  be 
curious,  I'll  send  it  to  Miss  Howard  next  Post,  let 
the  way  of  making  it  be  what  it  will." — Thus  it  is 
"  To  make  Love.  Take  of  Sweet- William  and  of 
Rose-Mary,  of  each  as  much  as  is  sufficient.  To  tho 
former  of  these  add  of  Honesty  and  Herb-of-grace ; 
and  to  the  latter  of  Eye-bright  and  Motherwort  of 
each  a  large  handful :  mix  them  separately,  and 
then,  chopping  them  altogether,  add  one  Plumb, 
two  sprigs  of  Heart's  Ease  and  a  little  Tyme.  And 
it  makes  a  most  excellent  dish,  probatum  est.  Some 
put  in  Rue,  and  Cuckold-Pint,  and  Heart-Chokes, 


22  LIFE    OF 

and  Cbxcome,  and  Yiolents;  But  these  spoil  the 
flavour  of  it  entirely,  and  I  even  disprove  of  Sallery 
which  some  good  Cooks  order  to  be  mix'd  with  it.  I 
have  frequently  seen  it  toss'd  up  with  all  these  at  the 
Tables  of  the  Great,  where  no  Body  would  eat  of  it, 
the  very  appearance  was  so  disagreable." 

Then  follow'd  "  Another  Eeceipt  to  make  Love," 
which  began  "  Take  two  Sheep's  Hearts,  pierce  them 
many  times  through  \\ith  a  Scewer  to  make  them 
Tender,  lay  them  upon  a  quick  Fire,  and  then  taking 

one  Handful "  here  Time  with  his  long  Teeth 

had  gnattered  away  the  remainder  of  this  Leaf.  At 
the  Top  of  the  next  Page,  begins  "To  make  an 
honest  Man."  *'  This  is  no  new  dish  to  me,"  says  1, 
*'  besides  it  is  now  quite  old  Fashioned ;  I  won't  read 
it."  Then  follow'd  '*  To  make  a  good  Wife." 
**  Pshaw,"  continued  I,  "  an  acquaintance  of  mine,  a 
young  Lady  of  Lichfield,  knows  how  to  make  tliis 
Dish  better  than  any  other  Person  in  the  World,  and 
she  has  promised  to  treat  me  with  it  sometime,"  and 
thus  in  a  Pett  threw  doun  the  Book,  and  would  not 
read  any  more  at  that  Time.  If  I  should  open  it 
again  tomorrow,  whatever  curious  and  useful  receipts 
I  shall  meet  with,  my  dear  Polly  may  expect  an 
account  of  them  in  another  Letter. 

I  have  the  Pleasure  of  your  last  Letter,  am  glad 
to  hear  thy  cold  is  gone,  but  do  not  see  why  it 
should  keep  you  from  the  concert,  because  it  was 
gone.     We  drink  your  Health  every  day  here,  by 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  23 

the  Name  of  Dulcinea  del  Toboso,  and  I  told  Mrs. 
Jervis  and  Miss  Jervis  that  we  were  to  have  been 
married  yesterday,  about  which  they  teased  mo  all- 
the  Evening.  I  heard  nothing  of  Miss  Fletcher's 
Fever  before.  I  will  certainly  be  with  Thee  on 
Wednesday  evening,  the  Writings  are  at  my  Huuse, 
and  may  be  dispatched  that  night,  and  if  a  License 
takes  up  any  Time  (for  I  know  nothing  at  all  about 
these  Things)  I  should  be  glad  if  Mr.  Howard  would 
order  one,  and  by  this  means,  dear  Polly,  we  may 
have  the  Ceremony  over  next  morning  at  eight 
o'clock,  before  any  Body  in  Lichfield  can  know 
almost  of  my  being  come  Home.  If  a  License  is  to 
be  had  the  Day  before,  I  could  wish  it  may  be  put 
off  till  late  in  the  Evening,  as  the  Voice  of  Fame 
makes  such  quick  Dispatch  with  any  News  in  so 
small  a  Place  as  Lichfield. — I  think  this  is  much 
the  best  scheme,  for  to  stay  a  few  Days  after  my 
Return  could  serve  no  Purpose,  it  would  only  make 
us  more  watch'd  and  teazed  by  the  Eye  and  Tongue 
of  Impertinence. — I  shall  by  this  Post  apprize  my 
Sister  to  be  ready,  and  have  the  House  clean,  and  I 
wish  you  would  give  her  Instructions  about  any 
trivial  affairs,  that  I  cannot  recollect,  such  as  a  cake 
you  mentioned,  and  tell  her  the  Person  of  whom, 
and  the  Time  when  it  must  be  made,  &c.  I'll  desire 
her  to  wait  upon  you  for  this  Purpose.  Perhaps 
Miss  Nelly  White  need  not  know  the  precise  Time 
till  the  Night  before,  but  this  as  you  please,  as 
I  (illegible).     You  could  rely  upon  her  Secrecy,  and 


24  LIFE    OP 

it's  a  Trifle,  if  any  Body  should  know.  Matrimony, 
my  dear  Girl,  is  undoubtedly  a  serious  affair,  (if  any 
Thing  be  such)  because  it  is  an  affair  for  Life :  But, 
as  we  have  deliberately  determin'd,  do  not  let  us  be 
frighted  about  this  Change  of  Life ;  or  however,  not 
let  any  breathing  Creature  perceive  that  we  have 
either  Fears  or  Pleasures  upon  this  Occasion :  as  I 
am  certainly  convinced,  that  the  best  of  Confidants 
(tho'  experienced  on  a  thousand  other  Occasions) 
could  as  easily  hold  a  burning  cinder  in  their  Mouth 
as  anything  the  least  ridiculous  about  a  new  married 
couple !  1  have  ordered  the  Writings  to  be  sent  to 
Mr.  Howard  that  he  may  peruse  and  fill  up  the 
blanks  at  his  Leizure,  as  it  wilt  (I  foresee)  be  dark 
night  before  I  get  to  Lichfield  on  WedDesday.  Mrs. 
Jervis  and  Miss  desire  their  Compl.  to  you,  and  often 
say  how  glad  she  shall  be  to  see  you  for  a  ie^  Days 
at  any  Time.  I  shall  be  glad,  Polly,  if  thou  hast 
Time  on  Sunday  night,  if  thou  wilt  favour  me  with 
a  few  Lines  by  the  return  of  the  Post,  to  tell  me 
how  Thou  doest,  &c. — My  Compl.  wait  on  Mr. 
Howard  if  He  be  returned. — My  Sister  will  wait 
upon  you,  and  I  hope,  Polly,  Thou  wilt  make  no 
Scruple  of  giving  her  Orders  about  whatever  you 
chuse,  or  think  necessary.  I  told  her  Nelly  White 
is  to  be  Bride-Maid.  Happiness  attend  Thee !  adieu, 
from,  my  dear  Girl, 

thy  sincere  Friend, 

E.  Dakwin. 
P.S. — Nothing  aliput  death  in  this  Letter,  Polly. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  25 

It  has  been  said  that  he  soon  got  into  prac- 
tice at  Lichfield,  and  I  have  found  the  fol- 
lowing memorandum  of  his  profits  in  his  own 


handwriting 

> 
• 

- 

The 

:  profits  of 

my  "business  amounted 

£  s. 

d. 

From  Nov. 

12: 

,  1756  to  Jan. 

1, 1757 

18  7 

6 

Jan. 

1757 

1758 

192  10 

6 

)> 

1758 

1759 

305  2 

0 

)) 

1759 

1760 

469  4 

0 

)} 

1760 

1761 

544  2 

0 

}) 

1761 

1762 

669  18 

0 

3) 

1762 

1763 

726  0 

0 

From  Jan 

12: 

,  1763  to  Jan. 

1,  1764 

639  13 

0 

>} 

1764 

)i 

1765 

750  13 

0 

}> 

1765 

)) 

1766 

800  1 

4 

» 

1766 

)) 

1767 

748  5 

6 

» 

1767 

)) 

1768 

847  3 

0 

>} 

1768 

)) 

1769 

775  11 

0 

» 

1769 

}} 

1770 

9 

• 

t> 

1770 

)) 

1771 

956  17 

6 

y> 

1771 

}) 

1772 

1064  7 

6 

11 

1772 

jj 

1773 

1025  3 

0 

Later  in  life  he  gave  up  the  good  habit  of 
keeping  accurate  accounts,  for  in  1799  he  wrote 
to  my  father  that  he  had  been  much  perplexed 
what  return  to  make  to  the  commissioners 
(of  income  tax  ?),  as  *'  I  kept  no  book,  but  be- 
"  lieved  my  business  to  be  £1000  a  year,  and  de- 


26  LIFE    OF 

"  duct  £200  for  travelling  expenses  and  chaise 
"  hire,    and  £200  for  a  livery-servant,  four 
"  horses  and  a  day  labourer."     Subsequently 
he  informed  my  father  that  the  commissioners 
had  accepted  this  estimate.     A  century  ago 
an  income  of  £1000  would  probably  be  equal 
to  one  of  £2000  at  the  present  time  ;  but  I  am 
greatly  surprised   that  his  profits   were  not 
larger.     All  his   friends  constantly  refer  to 
his  long  and  frequent  journeys,  for  his  prac- 
tice  lay   chiefly  amongst   the   upper   classes 
of  society.     When  he  went   to   live  at   the 
Priory,  he  remarked  to  my  father  in  a  letter 
that  Rve  or  six  additional  miles  would  make 
little  difference  in  the  fatigue  of  his  journeys. 
In   1781,   eleven  years  after  the  death  of 
his    first  wife,    he    married    the    widow   of 
Colonel  Chandos  Pole,  of  Radburn  Hall.     He 
had   become    acquainted    with    her    in    the 
Spring   of    1778,    when    she    had    come    to 
Lichfield  in  order  that  he  might  attend  her 
children    professionally.     It  is  evident  from 
the  many  MS.  verses  addressed  to  her  before 
their  marriage,  that  Dr.  Darwin  was  passion- 
ately attached  to  her,  even  during  the  life- 
time  of    her    husband,    who    died   in    1780, 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  27 

These  verses  are  somewhat  less  artificial  than 
liis  published  ones.  On  his  second  marriage 
he  left  Lichfield,  and  after  living  two  years 
at  Radburn  Hall,  he  removed  into  the  town 
of  Derby,  and  ultimately  to  Breadsall  Priory, 
a  few  miles  from  the  town,  where  he  died 
in  1802. 

There  is  little  to  relate  about  his  life  at 
either  Lichfield  or  Derby,  and,  as  I  am  not 
attempting  a  connected  narrative,  I  will  here 
give  such  impressions  as  I  have  formed  of  his 
intellect  and  character,  and  a  few  of  his  letters 
which  are  either  interesting  in  themselves,  or 
which  throw  light  upon  what  he  thought  and 
felt. 

His  correspondence  with  many  distin- 
guished men  was  large ;  but  most  of  the 
letters  which  I  possess  or  have  seen  are  unin- 
teresting, and  not  worth  publication.  Medi- 
cine and  mechanics  alone  roused  him  to 
write  with  any  interest.  He  occasionally 
corresponded  with  Rousseau,  with  whom-  he 
became  acquainted  in  an  odd  manner,  but 
none  of  their  letters  have  been  preserved. 
Rousseau  was  living  in  1766  at  Mr.  Daven- 
port's  house,   Wootton    Hall,    and    used    to 


28  LIFE   OF 

spend  much  of  his  time  "  in  the  well-known 
"  cave  upon  the  terrace  in  melancholy  con- 
"  templation."  He  disliked  being  interrupted, 
so  Dr.  Darwin,  who  was  then  a  stranger  to 
him,  sauntered  by  the  cave,  and  minutely 
examined  a  plant  growing  in  front  of  it.  This 
drew  forth  Eousseau,  who  was  interested  in 
botany,  and  they  conversed  together,  and 
afterwards  corresponded  during  several  years. 
I  find  a  letter  written  in  February  1767  on 
a  singular  subject.  A  gentleman  had  con- 
sulted him  about  the  body  of  an  infant  which 
had  apparently  been  murdered.  It  was 
believed  to  be  the  illegitimate  child  of  a 
lady,  and  to  have  been  murdered  by  its 
mother.  He  kej)t  a  copy  of  this  letter, 
without  any  address.  Omitting  all  medical 
details  it  runs  as  follows : — 

DeaB  Sir,  Lichfield,  Feb.  7, 1767. 

I  am  sorry  you  should  think  it  necessary  to 
make  any  excuse  for  a  Letter  I  this  morning  received 
from  you.  The  Cause  of  Humanity  needs  no  Apology 
to  me. 

The  Women   that    have   committed    this    most 
unnatural  crime,  are   real  objects   of  our   greatest 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  20 

Pity;  theJT  education  has  produced  in  them  po 
much  Modesty,  or  sense  of  Shame,  that  this  artificial 
Passion  overturns  the  very  instincts  of  Nature ! — 
what  Struggles  must  tliere  be  in  their  minds,  what 
agonies ! — at  a  Time  when,  after  the  Pains  of  Par- 
turition, Nature  has  designed  them  the  sweet  Conso- 
lation of  giving  Suck  to  a  little  helpless  Babe,  that 
depends  on  them  for  its  hourly  existence  ! — Hence 
the  cause  of  this  most  horrid  crime  is  an  excess  of 
what  is  really  a  Virtue,  of  the  Sense  of  Shame,  or 
Modesty.  Such  is  the  Condition  of  human  Nature  ! 
I  have  carefully  avoided  the  use  of  scientific  terms 
in  this  Letter  that  you  may  make  any  use  of  it  you 
may  think  proper ;  and  shall  only  add  that  I  am 
veryly  convinced  of  the  Truth  of  every  part  of  it. 
and  am,  Dear  Sir, 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

Erasmus  Darwin. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  safer  test  of  a  man's 
real  character  than  that  of  his  long  continued 
friendship  with  good  and  able  men.  Now, 
Mr.  Edgeworth,  the  father  of  Maria  Edge- 
worth,  the  authoress,  asserts,*  after  mention- 
ing the  names  of  Keir,  Day,  Small,  Bolton, 
Watt,  Wedgwood,  and  Darwin,  that  *' their 
"  mutual   intimacy   has   never    been  broken 

♦  *  Memoirs  of  B.  L.  Edgeworth,'  2nd  ed.  vol.  i.  p.  181. 


30  LIFE    OF 

"  except  by  death."  To  these  names,  those 
of  Edgeworth  himself  and  of  the  Galtons 
may  be  added.  The  correspondence  in  my 
possession  shows  the  truth  of  the  above 
assertion.  Mr.  Day  was  a  most  eccentric 
character,  whose  Hfe  has  been  sketched  by 
Miss  Seward;  he  named  Erasmus  Darwin 
"  as  one  of  the  three  friends  from  whom  he 
"  had  met  with  constant  kindness  ;"*  and 
Dr.  Darwin,  in  a  letter  to  my  father,  says  : 
"  I  much  lament  the  death  of  Mr.  Day. 
"  The  loss  of  one's  friends  is  one  great  evil 
"  of  growing  old.  He  was  dear  to  me  by 
"  many  names  (inultis  miki  nominihus  charics), 
*'  as  friend,  philosopher,  scholar,  and  honest 
*'  man. 

I  give  below  two  of  his  letters  to  Josiah 
Wedgwood. 

Erasmus  Darwin  to  Josiah  Wedgwood. 

Dear  Wedgwood,  Lichfield,  Sept.  30, 1772. 

I  did  not  return  soon  enough  out  of  Derby- 
shire to  answer  your  letter  by  yesterday's  Post. 
Your  second  letter  gave  me  great  consolation  about 
Mrs.  Wedgewood,  but  gave  me  most  sincere  grief 


*  t 


Memoirs  of  R.  L.  Edgeworth/  2nd  ed.  vol.  ii.  p.  113. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  31 

about  Mr.  Brindley,  whom  I  have  always  esteemed 
to  be  a  great  genius,  and  whose  loss  is  truly  a  public 
one.  I  don't  believe  he  has  left  his  equal.  I  think 
the  various  Navigations  should  erect  him  a  monu- 
ment in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  hope  you  will  at 
the  proper  time  give  them  this  hint. 

Mr.  Stanier  sent  me  no  account  of  him,  except  of 
his  death,  though  I  so  much  desired  it,  since  if  I  had 
understood  that  he  got  worse,  nothing  should  have 
hindered  me  from  seeing  him  again.  If  Mr.  Hen- 
shaw  took  any  Journal  of  his  illness  or  other  circum- 
stances after  I  saw  him,  I  wish  you  would  ash  him  for 
it  and  enclose  it  to  me.  And  any  circumstances  that 
you  recollect  of  his  life  should  be  wrote  down,  and  I 
will  some  time  digest  them  into  an  Eulogium.  These 
men  should  not  die,  this  Nature  denies,  but  their 
Memories  are  above  her  Malice.     Enough  I 


Erasmus  Darwin  to  Josiah  Wedgwood. 

Deak  Sir,  Lichfield,  Nov.  29,  1780. 

Your  letter  communicating  io  me  the  death  of 
your  friend,  and  I  beg  I  may  call  him  mine  3[r. 
Bentley,  gives  me  very  great  concern ;  and  a  train  of 
very  melancholy  ideas  succeeds  in  my  mind,  uncon- 
nected indeed  with  vour  loss,  but  which  still  at  times 
easts  a  shadow  over  me,  which  nothing  but  exertion 
in  business  or  in  acquiring  knowle<ige  can  remove. 


32  LIFE    OF 

This  exertion  I  must  recommend  to  you,  as  it  for  a 
time  dispossesses  the  disagreeable  ideas  of  our  loss  ; 
and  gradually  their  impression  or  effect  upon  us 
becomes  thus  weakened,  till  the  traces  are  scarcely 
perceptible,  and  a  scar  only  is  left,  which  reminds  us 
of  the  past  pain  of  the  united  wound. 

Mr.  Bentley  was  possessed  of  such  variety  of  know- 
ledge, that  his  loss  is  a  public  calamity,  as  well  as 
to  his  friends,  though  they  must  feel  it  the  most 
sensibly !  Pray  pass  a  day  or  two  with  me  at  Lich- 
field, if  you  can  spare  the  time,  at  your  return.  1 
want  much  to  see  you ;  and  was  truly  sorry  I  was 
from  home  as  you  went  up ;  but  I  do  beg  you  will 
always  lodge  at  my  house  on  your  road,  as  I  do  at 
yours,  whether  you  meet  with  me  at  home  or  not. 

I  have  searched  in  vain  in  Melmoth's  translation 
of  Cicero's  letters  for  the  famous  consolatory  letter 
of  Sulpicius  to  Cicero  on  the  loss  of  his  daughter  (as 
the  work  has  no  index),  but  have  found  it,  the  first 
letter  in  a  small  publication  called  *  Letters  on  the 
most  common  as  well  as  important  occasions  in  Life:' 
Newberry,  St.  Paul's,  1758.  This  letter  is  a  masterly 
piece  of  oratory  indeed,  adapted  to  the  man,  the  time, 
and  the  occasion.  I  think  it  contains  everything 
which  could  be  said  upon  the  subject,  and  if  you  have 
not  seen  it  I  beg  you  to  send  for  the  book. 

For  my  own  part,  too  sensible  of  the  misfortunes  of 
others  for  my  own  happiness,  and  too  pertiuacious  of 
the  remembrance  of  my  own  [i.e.  the  death  of  his 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  33 

son  Charles  in  1778],  I  am  rather  in  a  situation  to 
demand  than  to  administer  consolation.  Adieu.  God 
bless  you,  and  believe  me,  dear  Sir,  your  affectionate 

^^^^^^  E.  Darwin. 

Ten  years  later  be  seems  to  have  doubted 
mucb  about  tbe  consolation  to  be  derived 
from  tbe  letter  of  Sulpicius,  for  be  writes 
(1790)  toEdgewortb:* 

I  much  condole  with  you  on  your  late  loss.  I 
know  how  to  feel  for  your  misfortune.  The  little 
Tale  you  sent  is  a  prodigy,  written  by  so  young 
a  person,  with  such  elegance  of  imagination.  Nil 
admirari  may  be  a  means  to  escape  misery,  but  not 
to  procure  happiness.  There  is  not  much  to  be  had 
in  this  world — we  expect  too  much!  I  have  had 
my  loss  also.  The  letter  of  Sulpicius  to  Cicero  is 
fine  eloquence,  but  comes  not  to  the  heart ;  it  tugs, 
but  does  not  draw  the  arrow.  Pains  and  diseases  of 
the  mind  are  only  cured  by  Time.  Reason  but 
skins  the  wound,  which  is  perpetually  liable  to 
fester  again. 

Amongst  the  old  letters  preserved,  \\\erQ 
is  one  without  any  date  from  Huttou,  tbe 
founder  of  tbe  modern  science  of  geology,  and 
I  extract  its  commencement,  as  proceeding 
from   so    illustrious    a    scientific   man.      Dr. 

*  '  Memoirs,'  2nd  ed.  1821,  vol.  ii.  p.  110. 


34  LIFE   OF 

Darwin  seems  to  have  complained  to  him  of 
having  been  cheated  by  some  publisher ;  and 
Hutton  answers : — 

If  you  have  no  more  money  than  you  use,  then  be 
as  sparing  of  it  as  you  please,  but  if  you  have  money 
to  spend,  then  pray  learn  to  let  yourself  be  cheated, 
that  is,  learn  to  lay  out  money  for  which  you 
have  no  other  use.  If  this  be  not  philosophy,  at 
least  it  is  good  sense ;  for  why  the  devil  should  a 
man  have  money  to  be  a  plague  to  him,  when  it  is  so 
easy  to  throw  it  away  ;  and  if  thro'  a  spirit  of  general 
benevolence  you  are  afraid  of  mankind  suffering  from 
this  root  of  all  evil,  for  God's  sake  send  it  to  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  it  there  can  only  poison  fish  and 
it  will  there  make  in  time  a  noble  fossil  specimen. 

One  of  his  granddaughters  has  remarked 
to  me,  that  the  term  "  benevolent "  has  been 
associated  with  his  name,  almost  in  the  same 
manner  as  that  of  *^  judicious  "  with  the  name 
of  the  old  divine.  Hooker.  This  is  perfectly 
true,  for  I  have  incessantly  met  with  this 
expression  in  letters  and  in  the  many  pub- 
lished notices  about  him.  To  the  word  bene- 
volent, sympathy  is  generally  added,  and  often 
generosity,  as  well  as  hospitality.  Mr.  Edge- 
worth  says  :  *  "  I  have  known  him  intimately 

*  '  Monthly  Magazine,'  1802,  p.  115. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  35 

*'  during  thirty-six  years,  and  in  that  period 
"  have  witnessed  innumerable  instances  of  his 
*'  benevolence." 

His  life-long  friend,  Mr.  Keir,  wrote  to  ray 
father  (May  12th,  1802)  about  his  character 
as  follows  :  "  I  think  all  those  who  knew 
"  him,  will  allow  that  sympathy  and  be- 
"  nevolence  were  the  most  striking  features. 
*'  He  felt  very  sensibly  for  others,  and,  from 
"  his  knowledge  of  human  nature,  he  entered 
"  into  their  feelings  and  sufferings  in  the 
'*  different  circumstances  of  their  constitution, 
"  character,  health,  sickness,  and  prejudice. 
"  In  benevolence,  he  thought  that  almost  all 
"  virtue  consisted.  He  despised  the  monkish 
"  abstinences  and  the  hypocritical  pretensions 
*•  which  so  often  imjDOse  on  the  world.  The 
'*  communication  of  happiness  and  the  relief 
"  of  misery  were  by  him  held  as  the  only 
"  standard  of  moral  merit.  Tliough  he  ex- 
*'  tended  his  humanity  to  every  sentient 
"  being,  it  was  not  like  that  of  some  philo- 
''  sophers,  so  diffused  as  to  be  of  no  effect  ; 
'*  but  his  affection  was  there  warmest  where 
"  it  could  be  of  most  service  to  his  family 
"  and  his  friends,  who  will   long  remember 


36  LIFE    OF 

"  the  constancy  of  his  attachment  and  his 
''  zeal  for  their  welfare."  His  neighbour,  Sir 
Brooke  Boothby,  after  the  loss  of  his  child  (to 
whom  the  beautiful  and  well-known  monu- 
ment in  Ashbourne  church  was  erected),  in 
an  ode  addressed  to  Dr.  Darwin,  writes  in 
strong  terms  about  his  sympathy  and  power 
of  consolation. 

But  it  is  fair  to  state  that  from  my  father's 
conversation,  I  infer  that  Dr.  Darwin  had 
acted  towards  him  in  his  youth  rather 
harshly  and  imperiously,  and  not  always 
justly ;  and  though  in  after  years  he  felt  the 
greatest  interest  in  his  son's  success,  and 
frequently  wrote  to  him  with  aflfection, 
in  my  opinion  the  early  impression  on 
my  father's  mind  was  never  quite  obli- 
terated. 

I  have  heard  indirectly  (through  one  of  his 
stepsons)  that  he  was  not  always  kind  to  his 
son  Erasmus,  being  often  vexed  at  his  retiring 
nature,  and  at  his  not  more  fully  display- 
ing his  great  talents.  On  the  other  hand 
his  children  by  his  second  marriage  seem  to 
have  entertained  the  warmest  affection  for 
him. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  37 

Erasmus  Darwin  to  his  son  Robert. 

Dear  Robert,  April  19, 1789. 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  you  say  you  have  many 
enemies,  and  one  enemy  often  does  much  harm. 
The  best  way,  when  any  little  slander  is  told  one,  is 
never  to  make  any  piquant  or  angry  answer ;  as  the 
person  who  tells  you  what  another  says  against  you, 
always  tells  them  in  return  what  you  say  of  them.  I 
used  to  make  it  a  rule  always  to  receive  all  such  in- 
formation very  coolly,  and  never  to  say  anything 
biting  against  them  which  could  go  back  again ;  and 
by  these  means  many  who  were  once  adverse  to  me, 
in  time  became  friendly.  Dr.  Small  always  went 
and  drank  tea  with  those  who  he  heard  had  spoken 
against  him ;  and  it  is  best  to  show  a  little  attention 
at  public  assemblies  to  those  who  dislike  one;  and  it 
generally  conciliates  them. 

Ik  *  ^  *  * 

Kobert  seems  to  have  consulted  his  father 
about  some  young  man,  whom  he  w^ished  to 
see  well  started  as  an  apothecary,  and  received 
the  following  answer : — 

Erasmus  Darwin  to  his  so.v  Robert. 

Dear  Robert,  Derby,  Dec.  17, 1790. 

I  cannot  give  any  letters  of  recommendation 
to  Lichfield,  as  I  am  and  have  been  from  Ihlir  in- 


38  LIFE   OF 

fancy  acquainted  with,  all  the  apothecaries  there; 
and  as  such  letters  must  be  directed  to  some  of  their 
patients,  they  would  both  feel  and  resent  it.  When 
Mr.  Mellor  went  to  settle  there  from  Derby  I  took 
no  part  about  him.  As  to  the  prospect  of  success 
there,  if  the  young  man  who  is  now  at  Edinburgh 
should  take  a  degree  (which  I  suppose  is  probable), 
he  had  better  not  settle  in  Lichfield. 

I  should  advise  your  friend  to  use  at  first  all 
means  to  get  acquainted  with  the  people  of  all  ranks. 
At  first  a  parcel  of  blue  and  red  glasses  at  the  windows 
might  gain  part  of  the  retail  business  on  market 
days,  and  thus  get  acquaintance  with  that  class  of 
people.  I  remember  Mr.  Green,  of  Lichfield,  who  is 
now  growing  very  old,  once  told  me  his  retail  busi- 
ness, by  means  of  his  show-shop  and  many-coloured 
window,  produced  him  £100  a  year.  Secondly,  I 
remember  a  very  foolish,  garrulous  apothecary  at 
Cannock,  who  had  great  business  without  any  know- 
ledge or  even  art,  except  that  lie  persuaded  people 
he  kept  good  drugs;  and  this  he  accomplished  by 
only  one  stratagem,  and  that  was  by  boring  every 
person  who  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  step  into  his 
shop  with  the  goodness  of  his  drugs.  "  Here's  a  fine 
piece  of  assafoetida,  smell  of  this  valerian,  taste  this 
album  graecum.  Dr.  Fungus  says  he  never  saw  such 
a  fine  piece  in  his  life."  Thirdly,  dining  every 
market  day  at  a  farmers'  ordinary  would  bring  him 
some  Acquaintance,  and  I  don't  think  a  little  impedi- 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  39 

ment  in  his  speech  would  at  all  injure  him,  but 
rather  the  contrary  by  attracting  notice.  Fourtlily, 
card  assemblies, — I  think  at  Lichfield  surgeons  are 
not  admitted  as  they  are  here; — but  they  are  to 
dancing  assemblies ;  these  therefore  he  should  attend. 
Thus  have  I  emptied  my  quiver  of  the  arts  of  the 

Pharmacopol.     Dr.  K d,  I  think,  supported  his 

business  by  perpetual  boasting,  like  a  Charlatan ; 
this  does  for  a  blackguard  character,  but  ill  suits  a 
more  polished  or  modest  man. 

If  the  young  man  has  any  friends  at  Shrewsbmy 
who  could  give  him  letters  of  introduction  to  the 
proctors,  this  would  forward  his  getting  acquaint- 
ance. For  all  the  above  purposes  some  money  must 
at  first  be  necessary,  as  he  should  appear  well ; 
which  money  cannot  be  better  laid  out,  as  it  will 
pay  the  greatest  of  all  interest  by  Fettling  him 
well  for  life.  Journeymen  Apothecaries  have  not 
greater  wages  than  many  servants  ;  and  in  this  state 
they  not  only  lose  time,  but  are  in  a  manner  lowered 
in  the  estimation  of  the  world,  and  less  likely  to 
succeed  afterwards.  I  will  certainly  send  to  him, 
when  first  I  go  to  Lichfield.  I  do  not  think  his 
impediment  of  speech  will  injure  him  ;  I  did  not  find 
it  so  in  respect  to  myself.  If  he  is  not  in  such 
narrow  circumstances  but  that  he  can  appear  well, 
and  has  the  knowledge  and  sense  you  believe  him 
to  have,  I  dare  say  he  will  succeed  anywhere.  A 
letter  of  introduction  from  you  to  Miss  Seward,  men- 


40  LIFE    OF 

tioning  his  education,  may  be  of  service  to  him,  and 

another  from    Mr.    Howard.      Adieu,    from,    dear 

Eobert, 

Yours  most  affectionately, 

E.  Darwin. 

My  father  spoke  of  Dr.  Darwin  as  having 
great  jDowers  of  conversation.  Lady  Charle- 
ville,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the  most 
brilliant  society  in  London,  told  him  that  Dr. 
Darwin  was  one  of  the  most  agreeable  men 
whom  she  had  ever  met.  He  himself  nsed 
to  say  "  there  were  two  sorts  of  agreeable 
"  persons  in  conversation  parties — agreeable 
"  talkers  and  agreeable  listeners." 

He  stammered  greatly,  and  it  is  surprising 
that  this  defect  did  not  spoil  his  f)owers 
of  conversation.  A  young  man  once  asked 
him  in,  as  he  thought,  an  offensive  manner, 
whether  he  did  not  find  stammering  very 
inconvenient.  He  answered,  "No,  Sir,  it 
"  gives  me  time  for  reflection,  and  saves  me 
"  from  asking  impertinent  questions."  Miss 
Seward  speaks  of  him  as  being  extremely 
sarcastic^  but  of  this  I  can  find  no  evidence 
in  his  letters  or  elsewhere.  It  is  a  pity  that 
Dr.  Johnson  in  his  visits  to  Lichfield  rarely 


ERASMUS   DAR^'IN.  41 

met  Dr.  Darwin ;  but  they  seem  to  have 
disliked  each  other  cordially,  and  to  have 
felt  that  if  they  met  they  would  have  quar- 
relled like  two  dogs.  There  can,  I  suppose, 
be  little  doubt  that  Johnson  would  have  come 
off  victorious.  In  a  volume  of  MSS.  by 
Dr.  Darwin,  in  the  possession  of  one  of  his 
granddaughters,  there  is  the  following  stanza : 

From  Lichfield  famed  two  giant  critics  come, 
Tremble,  ye  Poets !  hear  them !    "  Fe,  Fo,  Fum  !" 
By  Seward's  arm  the  mangled  Beaumont  bled, 
And  Johnson  grinds  poor  Shakespear's  bones  for  bread. 

He  is  evidently  alluding  to  Mr.  Seward's 
edition  of  *  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Plays,' 
and  to  Johnson's  edition  of  '  Shakespear ' 
in  1765. 

He  possessed,  according  to  my  father,  great 
facility  in  explaining  any  difficult  subject ;  and 
he  himself  attributed  this  power  to  his  habit 
of  always  talking  about  whatever  he  ^^■as 
studying,  "  turning  and  moulding  the  subject 
**  according  to  the  capacity  of  his  hearers." 
He  compared  himself  to  Gil  Bias's  uncle,  who 
learned  the  grammar  by  teaching  it  to  liis 
nephew. 


42  LIFE   OF 

When  lie  wished  to  make  himself  disagree- 
able for  any  good  cause,  he  was  well  able  to 
do  so.     Lady    *     *     *    married  a  widower, 
and   became    so  jealous   of  his    former   wife 
that  she  cut  and  spoiled  her  picture,  which 
hung  up  in  one  of  the  rooms.     The  husband, 
fearing   that  his  young  wife  was  becoming 
insane,  was  greatly  alarmed,  and  sent  for  Dr. 
Darwin.     When  he  arrived  he  told  her  in 
the  plainest  manner  many  unpleasant  truths, 
amongst    others   that   the    former   wife   was 
infinitely  her  superior  in  every  respect,   in- 
cluding beauty.     The  poor  lady  was   aston- 
ished at  being  thus  treated,  and  could  never 
afterwards   endure   his   name.     He   told   the 
husband  if  she  again  behaved  oddly,  to  hint 
that  he  would  be  sent  for.     The  plan  suc- 
ceeded  perfectly,   and    she    ever   afterwards 
restrained  herself. 

My  father  was  much  separated  from  Dr. 
Darwin  after  early  life,  so  that  he  remem- 
bered few  of  his  remarks,  but  he  used  to 
quote  one  saying  as  very  true  :  "  that  the 
"  world  was  not  governed  by  the  clever  men, 
"  but  by  the  active  and  energetic."  He  used 
also  to  quote  another  saying,  that  "  common 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  43 

"  sense  would  be  improving,  when  men  left 
"  off  wearing  as  much  flour  on  tlieir  heads 
"  as  would  make  a  pudding ;  when  women 
"  left  off  wearing  rings  in  their  ears,  like 
"  savages  wear  nose  rings ;  and  when  fire- 
"  grates  were  no  longer  made  of  polished 
"  steel." 

Dr.  Darwin  has  been  frequently  called  an 
atheist,  whereas  in  every  one  of  his  works 
distinct  expressions  may  be  found  showing 
that  he  fully  believed  in  God  as  the  Creator 
of  the  universe.  For  instance,  in  the  '  Temple 
of  Nature,'  published  posthumously,*  he 
writes :  "  Perhaps  all  the  productions  of 
"  nature  are  in  their  progress  to  greater  per- 
"  fection  !  an  idea  countenanced  by  modern 
"  discoveries  and  deductions  concerning  the 
"  progressive  formation  of  the  solid  parts  of 
"  the  terraqueous  globe,  and  consonant  io 
"  the  dignity  of  the  creator  of  all  things." 
He  concludes  one  chapter  in  '  Zoonomia ' 
with  the  words  of  the  Psalmist :  "  The 
"  heavens  declare  the  Glory  of  God,  and  the 
"  firmament  sheweth  his  handiwork'' 

♦  'Temple  of  Nature,'  1803,  note,  p.  54,  See  also  the 
striking  foot-note  (p.  142)  on  the  immutable  properties  of 
matter  "received  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator,"  etc. 


44  LIFE   OF 

He  published  an  ode  on  the  folly  of 
atheism,  with  the  motto  "  I  am  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  made,"  of  which  the  first  verse 
is  as  follows  : — 

1. 

Dull  atheist,  could  a  giddy  dance 

Of  atoms  lawless  hurl'd 
Construct  so  wonderful,  so  wise, 

So  harmonised  a  world  ? 

With  reference  to  morality  he  says  :  *  ''  The 
"  famous  sentence  of  Socrates,  '  Know  your- 
"  self,'  ....  however  wise  it  may  be,  seems 

''  to  be  rather  of  a  selfish   nature 

"  But  the  sacred  maxims  of  the  author  of 
"  Christianity,  '  Do  as  you  would  be  done  by,' 
"  and  *  Love  your  neighbour  as  yourself,' 
"  include  all  our  duties  of  benevolence  and 
"  morality ;  and,  if  sincerely  obeyed  by  all 
"  nations,  would  a  thousandfold  multiply  the 
*'  present  happiness  of  mankind." 

Although  Dr.  Darwin  was  certainly  a 
theist  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the 
term,  he  disbelieved  in  any  revelation.  Nor 
did  he  feel  much  respect  for  unitarianism,  for 
he    used    to    say    that    "  unitarianism    was 


*  t 


Temple  of  Nature,'  1803,  note  p.  124. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  45 

a    feather-bed     to    catch    a    falling     Chris- 
tian." 

Remembering  through  what  an  exciting 
period  of  history  Erasmus  lived,  it  is  singular 
how  rarely  there  is  more  than  an  allusion  in 
his  letters  to  politics.  He  would  now  be 
called  a  liberal,  or  perhaps  rather  a  radical. 
He  seems  to  have  wished  for  the  success  of 
the  North  American  colonists  in  their  war 
for  independence ;  for  he  writes  to  Wedgwood 
(Oct.  17,  1782):  "I  hope  Dr.  Frankhn  will 
"  live  to  see  peace,  to  see  America  recline 
"  under  her  own  vine  and  fig-tree,  turning 
"  her  swords  into  plough-shares,  &c."  Like 
so  many  other  persons,  he  hailed  the  begin- 
ning of  the  French  Revolution  with  joy  and 
triumph.  Miss  Seward,  in  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Whalley,  dated  May  18,  1792,  says:  "I 
"  should  indeed  now  begin  to  fear  for  France ; 
"  but  Darwin  yet  asserts  that,  in  spite  of  all 
"  disasters,  the  cause  of  freedom  will  triumpli, 
**  and  France  become,  ere  long,  an  example, 
^*  prosperous  as  great,  to  the  surrounding 
"  nations." 

She  remarks  in  another  letter,  Darwin  "  was 


8 


46  LIFE    OF 

"  a  far-sighted  politician,  and  foresaw  and 
^'  foretold  the  individual  and  ultimate  mis- 
"  chief  of  every  pernicious  measure  of  the 
"  late  Cahinet."  * 

In  February  1789,  he  tells  Wedgwood  that 
he  had  been  reading  *  Colonel  Jack,'  by  De 
Foe,  and  suggests  that  the  account  there 
given  of  the  generous  spirit  of  black  slaves 
should  be  republished  in  some  journal. 
Again,  on  April  13th  of  the  same  year 
(1789),  he  writes:  "I  have  just  heard  that 
"  there  are  muzzles  or  gags  made  at  Birming- 
"  ham  for  the  slaves  in  our  islands.  If  this 
"  be  true,  and  such  an  instrument  could  be 
"  exhibited  by  a  speaker  in  the  House  of 
"  Commons,  it  might  have  a  great  effect. 
"  Could  not  one  of  their  long  whips  or 
"  wire  tails  be  also  procured  and  exhibited  ? 
"  But  an  instrument  of  torture  of  our  own 
"  manufacture  would  have  a  greater  effect, 
"  I  dare  say." 

The  following  lines  on  Slavery  were 
published  in  Canto  III.  of  the  *  Loves  of 
the  Plants,'  1790  :— 

♦  *  Journals  of  Dr.  Whalley,  1863,  vol.  ii.  pp.  73,  220-222, 


ERASMUS   DARWIN-.  47 

"  Throned  in  the  vaulted  heart,  his  dread  resort, 
Inexorable  Conscience  holds  his  com-t ; 
With  still  small  voice  the  plots  of  Guilt  alarms. 
Bares  his  mask'd  brow,  his  lifted  hand  disarms ; 
But  wrapp'd  in  might  with  terrors  all  his  own, 
He  speaks  in  thunder,  when  the  deed  is  done. 
Hear  him,  ye  Senates !  hear  this  truth  sublime. 
He,  who  allows  oppression,  shares  the  crime." 

The  date  of  this  poem  and  of  the  above 
letter  should  be  noticed,  for  let  it  be  re- 
membered that  even  the  slave-trade  was 
not  abolished  until  1807;  and  in  1783  the 
managers  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  absolutely  declined,  after  a 
full  discussion,  to  give  Christian  instruction 
to  their  slaves  in  Barbadoes.  * 

He  sympathised  warmly  with  Howard's 
noble  work  of  reforming  the  state  of  the 
prisons  throughout  Europe,  as  his  lines  in 
the  *  Loves  of  the  Plants  '  (Canto  11.) 
show  : — 

"  And  now.  Philanthropy !  thy  rays  divine   . 
Dart  round  the  globe  from  Zembla  to  the  line ; 
O'er  each  dark  prison  plays  the  cheering  light. 
Like  noj-thern  lustres  o'er  the  vault  of  night. — 
From  realm  to  realm,  with  cross  or  crescent  crown 'd, 
Where'er  mankind  and  misery  are  found, 

♦  Lecky,  'Hist,  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,'  1878, 
vol.  ii.  p.  17. 


48  LIFE   OF 

O'er  burning  sands,  deep  waves,  or  wilds  of  snow. 
Thy  Howard  journeying  seeks  the  house  of  woe- 
Down  many  a  winding  step  to  dungeons  dank, 
Where  anguish  wails  aloud,  and  fetters  clank ; 
To  caves  bestrew'd  with  many  a  mouldering  bone, 
And  cells,  whose  echoes  only  learn  to  groan ; 
^Tiere  no  kind  bars  a  whispering  friend  disclose. 
No  sunbeam  enters,  and  no  zephyr  blows. 
He  treads,  inemulous  of  fame  or  wealth. 
Profuse  of  toil,  and  prodigal  of  health; 
"With  soft  assuasive  eloquence  expands 
Power's  rigid  heart,  and  opes  his  clenching  hands, 
Leads  stern-eyed  Justice  to  the  dark  domains, 
If  not  to  sever,  to  relax  the  chains. 

The  spirits  of  the  Good,  who  bend  from  high 
Wide  o'er  these  earthly  scenes  their  partial  eye. 
When  first,  arrayed  in  Virtue's  purest  robe, 
They  saw  her  Howard  traversing  the  globe ; 
Mistook  a  mortal  for  an  Angel-Guest, 
And  ask'd  what  Seraph-foot  the  earth  imprest. 
Onward  ho  moves !  Disease  and  Death  retire. 
And  murmuring  demons  hate  him,  and  admire." 


Judging  from  his  published  works,  letters, 
and  all  that  I  have  been  able  to  gather  about 
him,  the  vividness  of  his  imagination  seems 
to  have  been  one  of  his  pre-eminent  charac- 
teristics. This  led  to  his  great  originality  of 
thought,  his  prophetic  spirit  both  in  science 
and  in  the  mechanical  arts,  and  to  his  over- 
powering tendency  to  theorise  and  generalise. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  49 

Nevertheless,  his  remarks,  hereafter  to  Ije 
given,  on  the  value  of  experiments  and  the 
use  of  hypotheses  show  that  he  had  the  true 
spirit  of  a  philosopher.  That  he  possessed 
uncommon  powers  of  observation  must  be 
admitted.  The  diversity  of  the  subjects  to 
which  he  attended  is  surprising.  But  of  all 
his  characteristics,  the  incessant  activity  or 
energy  of  his  mind  was,  perhaps,  the  most 
remarkable.  Mr.  Keir,  himself  a  distin- 
guished man,  who  had  seen  much  of  tlie 
world,  and  who  "  had  been  well  acquainted 
*'  with  Dr.  Darwin  for  nearly  half  a  century," 
after  his  death  wrote  (May  12th,  1802)  to  my 
father  :  "  Your  father  did  indeed  retain  more 
"  of  his  original  character  than  almost  any 
"  man  I  have  known,  excejDting,  perhaps,  Mr. 
"  Day  [author  of  *  Sandford  and  Merton,'  &c.]. 
"  Indeed^  the  originality  of  character  in  botli 
''  these  men  was  too  strong  to  give  way  to 
"  the  example  of  others."  He  afterwaids 
proceeds :  "  Your  father  paid  little  regard 
to  "  authority,  and  he  quickly  perceived  the 
"  analogies  on  which  a  new  theory  could  be 
"  founded.  This  penetration  or  sagacity  by 
"  which  he  was  able  to  discover  very  reiiiote 


50  LIFE   OF 

"  causes  and  distant  effects,  was  the  cliarac- 
"  teristic  of  his  understanding.  Perhaps  it 
"  may  be  thought  in  some  instances  to  have 
"  led  him  to  refine  too  much,  as  it  is  difficult 
"  in  using  a  very  sharp-pointed  instrument 
"  to  avoid  sometimes  going  rather  too  deep. 
*^  By  this  penetrating  faculty  he  was  enabled 
''  not  only  to  trace  the  least  conspicuous 
"  indications  of  scientific  analogy,  but  also 
"  the  most  delicate  and  fugitive  beauties  of 
"  poetic  diction.  If  to  this  quality  you  add 
'^  an  uncommon  activity  of  mind  and  facility 
"  of  exertion,  which  required  the  constant 
"  exercise  of  some  curious  investigation,  you 
'^  will  have,  I  believe,  his  principal  features." 
His  activity  continued  to  his  latest  days; 
and  the  following  letter,  written  when  he 
was  sixty-one  years  old  to  my  father,  shows 
his  continued  zeal  in  his  profession. 

Erasmus  Darwin  to  his  Son  Eobert. 

Dear  EoberT,  Derby,  April  13,  1792. 

I  think  you  and  I  should  sometimes  exchange 
a  long  medical  letter,  especially  when  any  uncommon 
diseases  occur ;  both  as  it  improves  one  in  writing 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  51 

clear  intelligible  English,  and  preserves  instructive 
cases.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  in  one  of  his  lectures 
on  pictorial  taste,  advised  painters,  even  to  extreme 
old  age,  to  study  the  works  of  all  other  artists,  both 
ancient  and  modern;  which  he  says  will  improve 
their  invention,  as  they  will  catch  collateral  ideas 
(as  it  were)  from  the  pictures  of  others,  which  is  a 
different  thing  from  imitation ;  and  adds,  that  if  they 
do  not  copy  others,  they  will  be  liable  to  copy  them- 
selves, and  introduce  into  their  work  the  same  faces, 
and  the  same  attitudes  again  and  again.  Now  in 
medicine  I  am  sure  unless  one  reads  the  work  of 
others,  one  is  liable  perpetually  to  copy  one*s  own 
prescriptions,  and  methods  of  treatment;  till  one's 
whole  practice  is  but  an  imitation  of  one's  self ;  and 
half  a  score  medicines  make  up  one's  whole  materia 
medica ;  and  the  apothecaries  say  the  doctor  has  but 
4  or  6  prescriptions  to  cure  all  diseases. 

Reasoning  thus,  I  am  determined  to  read  all  the  new 
medical  journals  which  come  out,  and  other  medical 
publications,  which  are  not  too  voluminous  ;  by  which 
one  knows  what  others  are  doing  in  the  medical  world, 
and  can  astonish  apothecaries  and  surgeons  with  the 
new  and  wonderful  discoveries  of  the  times.  All  this 
harangue  lately  occurred  to  me  on  reading  the  trials 

made  by  Dr.  Crawford. 

«  *  «  «  « 

My  father  seems  to  have  urged  him,  about 
the  year  1793,  to  leave  off  professional  Avork ; 


52  LIFE   OF 

he  answered,  "  it  is  a  dangerous  experiment, 
"  and  generally  ends  either  in  drunkenness 
"  or  hypochrondriacism.  Thus  I  reason, 
"  one  must  do  something  (so  country  squires 
"  fox-hunt),  otherwise  one  grows  weary  of 
"  life,  and  becomes  a  prey  to  ennui.  There- 
"  fore  one  may  as  well  do  something  advan- 
"  tageous  to  oneself  and  friends  or  to  mankind, 
"  as  employ  oneself  in  cards  or  other  things 
"  equally  insignificant."  During  his  frequent 
and  long  journeys,  he  read  and  wrote  much 
in  his  carriage,  which  was  fitted  up  for 
the  purpose.  Nor  was  travelling  an  easy 
afTair  in  those  days^  for  owing  to  the  state  of 
the  roads,  a  carriage  could  hardly  reach  some 
of  the  houses  which  he  had  to  visit ;  and  I  hear 
from  one  of  his  granddaughters  that  an  old 
horse  named  the  "  Doctor,'*  with  a  saddle  on^ 
used  to  follow  behind  the  carriage,  without 
being  in  any  way  fastened  to  it ;  and  when 
the  road  was  too  bad,  he  got  out  and  rode 
upon  Doctor.  This  horse  lived  to  a  great  age, 
and  was  buried  at  the  Priory. 

When  at  home  he  was  an  early  riser;  and 
he  had  his  papers  so  arranged  (as  I  have 
heard  from  my  father)  that  if  he  awoke  in 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  53 

the  night  he  was  able  to  get  np  and  continue 
his  work  for  a  time,  until  he  felt  sleepy. 
Considering  his  indomitable  activity,  it  is  a 
singular  fact  that  he  suffered  much  from  a 
sense  of  fatigue.  On  my  once  remarking  to 
my  father,  how  greatly  fatigued  he  seemed 
to  be  after  his  day's  work,  he  answered,  "I 
"  inherit  it  from  my  father." 

In  some  notes  made  by  my  father  in  1802, 
he  states  that  Dr.  Darwin  naturally  was  of  a 
bold  disposition,  but  that  a  succession  of  acci- 
dents made  a  deep  impression  on  his  mind,  and 
that  he  became  very  cautious.  When  he  was 
about  G.Ye  years  old  he  received  an  accidental 
blow  on  the  top  of  his  head,  sufficiently  severe 
to  give  him  a  white  lock  of  hair  for  life. 
Later  on,  when  he  was  fishing  with  his 
brothers,  they  put  him  into  a  bag  with  only 
his  feet  out,  and  being  thus  blinded  he  walked 
into  the  river,  and  was  very  nearly  drowned. 
Again,  when  he  and  Lord  George  Cavendish 
were  playing  with  gunpowder  at  school ,  it 
exploded,  and  he  was  badly  injured  ;  and 
lastly,  he  broke  his  kneeca23. 

Owing  to  his  lameness,  he  was  clumsy  in 
his  movements,  but  when  young,  was  a  very 


54  LIFE   OF 

active  man.  His  frame  was  large  and  bulky, 
and  he  grew  corpulent  when  old.  He  was 
deeply  pitted  with  the  small-pox. 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  so  large  a  town 
as  Derby^  and  at  so  late  a  period  as  1784, 
there  was  no  public  institution  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor  in  sickness.  Dr.  Darwin 
therefore  at  this  time  drew  up  a  circular,  the 
MS.  of  which  is  in  my  possession,  stating  that 
''  as  the  small-pox  has  already  made  great 
"  ravages  in  Derby,  showing  much  malignity 
"  even  at  its  commencement ;  and  as  it  is  now 
*^  three  years  since  it  was  last  epidemic  in  this 
"  town,  there  is  great  reason  to  fear  that  it  will 
'*  become  very  fatal  in  the  approaching  spring, 
"  particularly  amongst  the  poor,  who  want 
"  both  the  knowledge  and  the  assistance  neces- 
"  sary  for  the  preservation  of  their  children." 
He  accordingly  proposed  that  a  society  should 
be  formed — the  members  to  subscribe  a  guinea 
each,  and  that  a  room  should  be  hired  as  a 
dispensary,  where  the  medical  men  of  the  town 
might  give  their  attendance  gratuitously. 
The  poor  were  to  be  directed  to  take  their  pre- 
scriptions in  due  order  to  all  the  druggists  in 
the  town,  apparently  to   disarm   opposition. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  55 

The  circular  then  expresses  the  hope  tliat 
the  dispensary  "may  prove  the  foundation- 
"  stone  of  a  future  infirmary.'* 

In  this  same  year  of  1784  he  seems  to 
have  taken  the  chief  part  in  founding  a 
Philosophical  Society  in  Derby.  The  mem- 
bers met  for  the  first  time  at  his  liouse,  and 
he  delivered  to  them  a  short  but  striking 
address,  from  which  the  following  passages 
may  be  given  :  "  I  come  now  to  the  second 

*  source  of  our  accurate  ideas.  As  we  are 
'  fashioned  and  constituted  by  the  niggard 
'  hand  of  Nature  with   such  imperfect   and 

*  contracted  faculties,  with  so  few  and  such 
'  imperfect  senses ;  while  the  bodies,  which 
'  surround  us,  are  indued  with  infinite  variety 
'  of  properties ;  with  attractions,  repulsions, 
'  gravitations,  exhalations,  jDolarities,  minute- 
■•  ness,  irresistance,  &c.,  which  are  not  cog- 
'  nizable  by  our  dull  organs  of  sense,  or  not 
'  adapted  to  them ;  what  are  we  to  do  ?  shall 
'  we  sit  down  contented  with  ignorance,  and 
'  after  we  have  procured  our  food,  sleep  away 
'  our  time  like  the  inhabitants  of  the  woods 
'  and  pastures  ?  No,  certainly  ! — since  there 
'  is  another  way  by  which  we  mav  indirectly 


56  LIFE   OF 

"  become  acquainted  with  those  properties  of 
"  bodies,  which  escape  our  senses ;  and  that 
"  is  by  observing  and  registering  their  effects  upon 
''  each  other.  This  is  the  tree  of  knowledge, 
"  whose  fruit  forbidden  to  the  brute  creation 
'*  has  been  plucked  by  the  daring  hand  of 
^^  experimental  philosophy. 

He  concludes  the  address  with  the  words  : 
"  I  hope  at  some  distant  time,  perhaps  not 
*"'  very  distant,  by  our  own  publications  we 
''  may  add  something  to  the  common  heap 
*^  of  knowledge  ;  which  I  prophecy  will  never 
^'  cease  to  accumulate,  so  long  as  the  human 
'•'  footstep  is  seen  upon  the  earth." 

No  man  has  ever  inculcated  more  persist- 
ently and  strongly  the  evil  effects  of  intemper- 
ance than  did  Dr.  Darwin  ;  but  chiefly  on  the 
grounds  of  ill-health,  with  its  inherited  conse- 
quences ;  and  this  perhaps  is  the  most  practical 
line  of  attack.  It  is  positively  asserted  that  he 
diminished  to  a  sensible  extent  the  practice  of 
drinking  amongst  the  gentry  of  the  county.* 

*  The  following  short  history  of  temperance  societies  is 
extracted  irom  Dr.  Krause's  MS.  notes  on  Dr.  Darwin  : — 
"The  oldest  temperance  societies  were  founded  in  North 
America  in  1808  by  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Hush,  and  in  Great 
Britain  in    1829,   chiefly   at  the    suggestion  of  Mr.   Dunlop. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  57 

He  himself  during  many  years  never  touclied 
alcohol  under  any  form  ;  but  he  was  not  a 
bigot  on  the  subject,  for  in  old  age  lie  informed 
my  father  that  he  had  taken  to  drink  daily 
two  glasses  of  home-made  wine  with  advant- 
age. Why  he  chose  home-made  wine  is  not 
obvious ;  perhaps  he  fancied  that  he  thus  did 
not  depart  so  widely  from  his  long-continued 
rule.  He  also  wrote  (Oct.  15,  1772)  to 
Wedgwood,  who  had  feeble  health  :  "  I  would 
"  advise  you  to  live  as  high  as  your  constitution 
*'  will  admit  of,  in  respect  to  both  eating  and 
'*  drinking.  This  advice  could  be  given  to  very 
'^  few  people !  If  you  were  to  weigh  yourself 
"  once  a  month  you  would  in  a  few  months 
"  learn  whether  this  method  was  of  service  to 
"  you."     His  advocacy  of  the  cause  is  not  yet 

See  Samuel  Couling,  '  History  of  the  Temperance  Move- 
ment in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  from  the  earliest  date 
to  the  present  time  ; '  London,  1862.  In  Germany,  indeed,  the 
Archduke  Frederick  of  Austria  had  founded  a  temperance  order 
as  early  as  1439,  which  was  followed  in  1600  by  the  temperance 
order  established  by  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  but  these  were  only 
imitations  of  the  Templars  and  other  orders  of  knighthood, 
-which  sought  by  vows  to  suppress  the  coarse  excesses  of  drinking 
bouts,  as  is  indicated  by  the  motto  of  the  first-mentioned  order  : 
*  Halt  Maas ! '  The  suggestion  of  the  establishment  in  Ger- 
many of  true  temperance  societies  on  the  American  and  English 
model  was  due  to  King  Frederick  William  IIL" 


58  LIFE    OF 

forgotten,  for  Dr.  Richardson,  in  his  address 
in  1879  to  the  "  British  Medical  Temperance 
Association,"  remarks:  "the  illustrious  Hal- 
"  ler,  Boerhaave,  Armstrong,  and  particularly 
"  Erasmus  Darwin,  were  earnest  in  their  sup- 
"  port  of  what  we  now  call  the  principles  of 
"  temperance." 

When  a  young  man  he  was  not  always 
temperate.  Miss  Seward  relates*  a  story, 
which  would  not  have  been  worth  notice  had 
it  not  been  frequently  quoted.  My  grand- 
father went  on  a  picnic  party  in  Mr.  Sneyd's 
boat  down  the  Trent,  and  after  luncheon,  when 
(in  Miss  Sewajrd  s  elegant  language),  "  if  not 
"  absolutely  intoxicated,  his  spirits  were  in  a 
"  high  state  of  vinous  exhilaration,"  he  sud- 
denly got  out  of  the  boat,  swam  ashore  in  his 
clothes,  and  "  walked  coolly  over  the  meadows 
"  towards  the  town"  of  Nottingham.  He 
there  met  an  apothecary,  whose  remonstrances 
about  his  wet  clothes  he  answered  by  saying 
that  the  unusual  internal  stimulus  would 
"  counteract  the  external  cold  and  moisture ; " 
he  then  mounted  on  a  tub,  and  harangued 
the  mob  in  an  extremely  sensible  manner  on 

Memoirs  of  Dr.  Darwin/  pp.  64-68. 


*  f 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  59 

sanitary  arrangements.  But  it  is  obvious 
that  these  harangues  must  have  been  largely 
the  work  of  Miss  Seward's  own  imagination. 
There  was,  however,  some  truth  in  this  story, 
for  his  widow,  who  did  not  believe  a  word 
of  it,  wrote  to  Mr.  Sneyd,  whose  answer 
lies  before  me.  He  admits  that  something 
^'similar"  did  hapjDen,  but  gives  no  details, 
and  advises  Mrs.  Darwin  "  to  take  no  notice 
"  of  this  part  of  her  (Miss  Seward's)  very 
"  unguarded  and  scandalous  publication." 
To  show  what  the  gentry  of  the  county 
thought  of  her  book  at  the  time,  I  will  add 
that  Mr.  Sneyd,  after  alluding  in  the  same 
letter  to  her  account  of  the  death  of  his  son 
Erasmus,  remarks  :  "  The  authoress  deserves 
*^  to  be  exposed  for  her  want  of  veracity  and 
"  every  humane  feeling."  One  of  Dr.  Dar- 
win's stepsons  (as  I  hear  from  his  daughter) 
used  always  to  maintain  that  this  half- tipsy 
freak  was  due  to  some  of  the  gentlemen  of 
the  party,  "  who  were  vexed  at  his  temj)e- 
"  rate  habits,"  having  played  him  a  trick ; 
and  this,  I  presume,  means  that  he  was  per- 
suaded to  drink  something  as  weak  which 
was  really  strong. 


60  LIFE   OP 

The  following  incident  related  by  Mr. 
Edge  worth  *  illustrates  the  humane  side  of  his 
character.  Mr.  Edgeworth  had  corresponded, 
as  a  stranger,  with  Dr.  Darwin,  about  the 
construction  of  carriages,  and  came  to  Lich- 
field to  see  him,  but  did  not  find  him  at 
home.  He  was  asked  by  Mrs.  Darwin  to 
stay  to  supper.  "  When  this  was  nearly 
finished,  a  loud  rapping  at  the  door  an- 
nounced the  doctor.  There  was  a  bustle 
in  the  hall,  which  made  Mrs.  Darwin  get 
up  and  go  to  the  door.  Upon  her  ex- 
claiming that  they  were  bringing  in  a  dead 
man,  I  went  to  the  hall.  I  saw  some  per- 
sons, directed  by  one  whom  I  guessed  to  be 
Doctor  Darwin,  carrying  a  man  who  ap- 
peared motionless.  *  He  is  not  dead,'  said 
Dr.  Darwin,  'he  is  only  dead  drunk.  I 
found  him,'  continued  tho  doctor,  'nearly 
suffocated  in  a  ditch ;  I  had  him  lifted  into 
my  carriage,  and  brought  hither,  that  we 
might  take  care  of  him  to-night.' "  Not 
many  men  would  have  done  anything  so 
disagreeable  as  to  bring  home  a  drunken 
man  in  their  carriage.     When  a  light  was 

♦  *  Memoirs  of  R.  L.  Edgeworth/  2nd  edit.  vol.  i.  p.  158. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  61 

brought,  the  man  was  found  to  be,  to  the 
astonishment  of  all  present,  Mrs.  Darwin's 
brother,  "  who  for  the  first  time  in  his  life," 
as  Mr.  Edge  worth  was  assured,  "  had  been 
"  intoxicated  in  this  manner,  and  who  would 
"  undoubtedly  have  perished  had  it  not  been 
"  for  Dr.  Darwin's  humanity."  We  must 
remember  that  in  those  good  old  days  it  was 
not  thought  much  of  a  disgrace  to  be  very 
drunk.  After  the  man  had  been  put  to  bed, 
Mr.  Edgeworth  says  that  Dr.  Darwin  and  he 
first  discussed  the  construction  of  carriages 
and  then  various  literary  and  scientific  sub- 
jects, so  that  "he  discovered  that  I  had 
"  received  the  education  of  a  gentleman." 
« Why,  I  thought,"  said  the  doctor,  *'  that 
"  you  were  only  a  coachmaker."  "  That  was 
"  the  reason,"  said  I,  *^  that  you  looked  so  sur- 
"  prised  at  finding  me  at  supper  with  Mrs. 
"  Darwin.  But  you  see,  doctor,  how  superior 
"  in  discernment  ladies  are  even  to  the  most 
"  learned  gentleman." 

He  was  kind  and  considerate  to  his  servants, 
as  the  two  following  stories  show.  His  son 
Robert  owed  him  a  small  sum  of  money,  and 
instead  of  being  paid,  he  asked  Robert  to  buy 


62  LIFE   OF 

a  goose-pie  with  it,  for  which  it  seems  Shrews- 
bury was  then  famous,  and  send  it  at  Christ- 
mas to  an  old  woman  living  in  Birmingham, 
"  for  she,  as  you  may  remember,  was  your 
"  nurse,  which  is  the  greatest  obligation,  if 
"  well  performed,  that  can  be  received 
"  from  an  inferior."  This  was  in  the  year 
1793. 

0;i  the  day  of  his  death,  in  the  early  morn- 
ing, whilst  writing  a  long  and  affectionate 
letter  to  Mr.  Edge  worth,  he  was  seized  with  a 
violent  shivering  fit,  and  went  into  the  kitchen 
to  warm  himself  before  the  fire.  He  there  saw 
an  old  and  faithful  maid  servant  churning, 
and  asked  her  why  she  did  this  on  a  Sunday 
morning.  She  answered  that  she  had  always 
done  so,  as  he  liked  to  have  fresh  butter 
every  morning.  He  said  :  "  Yes,  I  do,  but 
"  never  again  churn  on  a  Sunday !" 

That  Dr.  Darwin  was  charitable,  we  may 
believe  on  Miss  Seward's  testimony,  as  it  is 
supported  by  concurrent  evidence.  After 
saying  that  he  would  not  take  fees  from  the 
priests  and  lay-vicars  of  the  Cathedral  of  Lich- 
field, she  adds:  "Diligently,  also,  did  he 
"  attend  to  the  health  of  the  poor  in  the  city 


ERASMUS   DART7IN.  C3 

*'  and  afterwards  at  Derby,  and  supplied  tlieir 
^'  necessities  of  food,  and  all  sort  of  charitable 
^'  assistance."  *  Sir  Brooke  Boothby  also,  in 
one  of  his  published  sonnets,  says  : — 

If  briglit  example  more  than  precept  sway 
Go,  take  your  lesson  from  the  life  of  Day, 
Or,  Darwin,  thine  whose  ever-open  door 
Draws,  like  Bethesda's  pool,  the  suffering  poor 
Where  some  fit  cure  the  wretched  all  obtain 
Eelieved  at  once  from  poverty  and  pain. 

The  gratitude  of  the  poor  to  him  was  shown 
on  two  occasions  in  a  strange  manner.j 
Having  to  see  a  patient — one  of  the  Caven- 
dishes— at  Newmarket  during  the  races,  he 
slept  at  an  hotel,  and  during  the  night  was 
awakened  by  the  door  being  gently  opened. 
A  man  came  to  his  bedside  and  thus  spoke 

*  *  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Dr.  Darwin,'  1804,  p.  5. 

f  These  stories  appear  at  first  hardly  credible,  but  I  have 
traced  them,  more  or  less  clearly,  through  four  distinct  channels 
to  my  grandfather,  whose  veracity  has  never  been  doubted  by 
any  one  who  knew  him.  The  fundamental  facts  are  the  same 
with  respect  to  the  jocky  story,  but  the  accessories  difler  to  an 
extreme  degree.  With  respect  to  the  second  story  even  some  of 
the  fundamental  facts  difi"er,  and  I  feel  much  doubt  about  it.  It 
is  quite  curious  how  stories  get  unintentionally  altered  in  the 
course  of  years.  They  were  first  communicated  to  rrc  by  a 
daughter  of  Yioletta  Darwin,  who  heard  her  mother  relate 
them. 


64  LIFE   OF 

to  him :  '*  I  heard  that  you  were  here,  but 
"  durst  not  come  to  speak  to  you  during  the 
"  day.  I  have  never  forgotten  your  kind- 
"  ness  to  my  mother  in  her  bad  illness,  but 
"  have  not  been  able  to  show  you  my  grati- 
"  tude  before.  I  now  tell  you  to  bet  largely 
"  on  a  certain  horse  (naming  one),  and  not 
"on  the  favourite,  whom  I  am  to  ride,  and 
"  who  we  have  settled  is  not  to  win."  My 
grandfather  afterwards  saw  in  the  newspaper 
that  to  the  astonishment  of  everyone^  the 
favourite  had  not  won  the  race. 

The  second  story  is,  that  as  the  doctor  was 
riding  at  night  on  the  road  to  Nottingham  a 
man  on  horseback  passed  him,  to  whom  he 
said  good  night.  As  the  man  soon  slackened 
his  pace,  Dr.  Darwin  was  forced  to  pass  him, 
and  again  spoke,  but  neither  time  did  the  man 
give  any  answer.  A  few  nights  afterwards 
a  traveller  was  robbed  at  nearly  the  same 
spot  by  a  man  who,  from  the  description,  ap- 
peared to  be  the  same.  It  *is  added  that  my 
grandfather  out  of  curiosity  visited  the  robber 
in  prison^  who  owned  that  he  had  intended 
to  rob  him,  but  added  :  "  I  thought  it  was  you, 
"  and  when  you  spoke  1  was  sure  of  it.     You 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  65 

"  saved  my  life  many  years  ago,  and  nothing 
"  could  make  me  rob  you."* 

Notwithstanding  so  much  evidence  of  Dr. 
Darwin's  benevolence  and  generosity,  it  has 
been  represented  that  he  valued  money  in- 
ordinately, and  that  he  wrote  only  for  gain. 
This  is  tbe  language  of  a  notice  published 
shortly  after  his  death,f  which  also  says  that 
he  was  very  vain,  and  that  "  flattery  was 
"  found  to  be  the  most  successful  means  of 
"  gaining  his  notice  and  favour." 

All  that  I  have  been  able  to  learn  goes  to 
show  that  this  was  a  mistaken  view  of  his 
character. 

In  a  letter  to  my  father,  dated  Feb.  7,  1792, 
he  writes : 

"  As  to  fees,  if  your  business  pays  you  well 
"  on  the  whole,  I  would  not  be  uneasy  about 
"  making  absolutely  the  most  of  it.  To  live 
"  comfortably  all  one's  life,  is  better  than  to 
"  make  a  very  large  fortune  towards  the  end 
"of  it." 

In  another  letter  not  dated,  but  written  in 

*  In  one  version  of  this  story,  the  visit  of  Dr.  Darwin  to  tlio 
man  is  not  mentioned,  so  that  there  is  then  no  point  to  llie  story. 

t  *  Monthly  Magazine,'  or  'British  Register,'  vol.  xiii.  1802, 
p.  457. 


66  LIFE    OF 

1793,  he  remarks  :"  There  are  two  kinds  of 
"  covetousness,  one  the  fear  of  poverty,  the 
"other  the  desire  of  gain.  The  former,  I 
"  believe,  at  some  times  affects  all  people 
"  who  live  by  a  profession."  Again,  his  son 
Erasmus,  in  writing  on  Nov.  12,  1792,  to  my 
father,  after  remarking  how  rich  he  was  be- 
coming, adds  :  "  I  am  not  afraid  of  being  rich, 
"  as  our  father  used  to  say  at  Lichfield  he 
"  was,  for  fear  of  growing  covetous ;  to  avoid 
"  which  misfortune,  as  you  know,  he  used  to 
"  dig  a  certain  number  of  duck  puddles 
"  every  spring,  that  he  might  fill  them  up 
"  again  in  the  autumn."  How  it  was  possible 
to  expend  much  money  in  digging  duck 
puddles,  it  is  not  easy  to  see. 

It  is  probable  that  the  only  foundation  for 
the  reviewer's  statements,  and  for  others  of  a 
like  kind,  was  the  habit  he  had — perhaps  a 
foolish  one — of  often  speaking  about  himself 
in  a  quizzing  or  bantering  tone.  Mr.  Edge- 
worth,  who  had  known  him  "intimately 
"  during  thirty-six  year  '  in  answer  to  the 
reviewer,  writes  :* 

"I   am   most   anxious   to   contradict    that 


*  ( 


Monthly  Magazine,'  vol.  ii.  L802,  p.  115. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  67 

"  assertion  of  the  anonymous  biographer, 
"  which  I  consider  the  most  unfounded  and 
"  injurious — that  Dr.  Darwin  wrote  chiefly 
"  for  money.  ...  It  is  not  improbable 
"  that  to  avoid  offensive  adulation  he  miffht 
"  have  said  ironically  that  his  object  in 
"  writing  was  money,  not  fame.  I  have 
"  heard  him  say  so  twenty  times,  but  I  never 
"  for  one  moment  supposed  him  to  be  in 
"  earnest.  .  .  .  It  is  asserted  by  the  re- 
"  viewer  *  that  he  stooped  to  accept  of  gross 
"  *  flattery.'  Perhaps  in  the  inmost  recesses 
"  of  his  heart,  vanity  might  reign  without 
"  control,  but  no  man  exacted  less  tribute  of 
"  applause  in  conversation.  When  the  admi- 
"  rable  travestie  of  his  poetic  style  was  pub- 
"  lished  in  the  Anti-jacobin  newspaper,  I 
"  spoke  of  it  in  his  presence  in  terms  of 
"  strong  approbation,  and  he  appeared  to 
"  think  as  I  did,  of  the  wit,  ingenuity,  and 
"  poetic  merit  of  the  parody."  To  ask  the 
author  of  the  *  Loves  of  the  Plants '  to  admire 
the  '  Loves  of  the  Triangles  *  was  putting  his 
temper  through  a  severe  ordeal.  Mr.  Keir, 
who  had  known  Dr.  Darwin  well  for  nearly 
half  a  century,  remarks  in  a  letter  (May  12, 


68  LIFE    OP 

1802) :  "  The  works  of  your  father  are  a 
"  more  faithful  monument  and  more  true 
"  mirror  of  his  mind  than  can  be  said  of 
"  those  of  most  authors.  For  he  was  not 
"  one  of  those  who  wrote  invitd  Minerva,  or 
"  from  any  other  incitement  than  the  ardent 
**  love  of  the  subject." 

Throughout  his  letters  I  have  been  struck 
with  his  indifference  to  fame,  and  the  com- 
plete absence  of  all  signs  of  any  over-estima- 
tion of  his  own  abilities  or  of  the  success  of 
his  works.  I  infer,  from  his  having  men- 
tioned the  fact  to  my  father,  that  he  was 
pleased  by  receiving  a  print  of  himself,  "  well 
"  done,  I  believe — proofs,  IO5.  6c?. — the  first 
"  impression  of  which  the  engraver,  Mr. 
''  Smith,  believes  will  soon  be  sold,  and  he 
"  will  then  sell  a  second  at  55."  He  then 
adds :  "  but  the  great  honour  of  all  is  to  have 
"  one's  head  upon  a  sign-post,  unless,  indeed, 
"  upon  Temple  Bar  !  "  This  engraving  was 
copied  from  the  picture  by  Wright  of  Derby, 
of  which  a  photograph  is  given  in  the  pre- 
sent volume.  Many  pictures  were  made  of 
him,  but  with  one  or  two  exceptions  they  are 
characterised  by  a  rather  morose  and  discon- 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  69 

tented  expression.  Mr.  Edgeworth,  in  writing 
to  him  about  one  of  these  pictures,  says  : 
"  There  is  a  cloud  over  your  brow  and  a 
"  compression  of  the  lips  that  hide  your 
"  benevolence  and  good  humour.  And  great 
"  author  as  you  are,  dear  doctor,  I  think 
"  you  excel  the  generality  of  mankind  as 
"  much  in  generosity  as  in  abilities."* 

I  have  said  that,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  he 
was  remarkably  free  from  vanity,  conceit,  or 
display ;  nor  does  he  appear  to  have  been  am- 
bitious for  a  higher  j)osition  in  society.  Miss 
Fielding,  a  granddaughter  of  Lady  Charlotte 
Finch,  governess  to  Queen  Charlotte's  dangli- 
ters,  was  taken  to  Dr.  Darwin,  at  Derby,  on 
account  of  her  health,  and  was  invited  to  stay 
some  time  at  his  house.  George  the  Third 
heard  of  my  grandfather's  fame  throngli 
Lady  Charlotte,  and  said  :  **  Why  does  not 
"  Dr.  Darwin  come  to  London  ?  He  shall 
"be  my  physician  if  he  comes";  and  he 
repeated  this  over  and  over  again  in  his 
usual  manner.  But  Dr.  Darwin  and  his  wife 
agreed  that  they  disliked  the  thoughts  of  a 
London  life  so  much,  that  the  hint  was  not 

*  *  Memoirs,'  2nd  ed.  vol.  ii.  p.  177. 
4 


70  '  LIFE    OF 

acted  on.    Others  have  expressed  surprise  that 
he  never  migrated  to  London. 

That  he  was  irascible  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
My  father  says  "  he  was  sometimes  violent  in 
"  his  anger,  but  his  sympathy  and  benevo- 
"  lence  soon  made  him  try  to  soothe  or  soften 
"  matters."  Mr.  Edge  worth  also  says  :*  "  Five 
"  or  six  times  in  my  life  I  have  seen  him 
"  angry,  and  have  heard  him  express  that 
"  anger  with  much  real,  and  more  apparent 
"  vehemence — more  than  men  of  less  sensi- 
"  bility  would  feel  or  show.  But  then  the 
"  motive  never  was  personal.  When  Dr. 
"  Darwin  beheld  any  example  of  inhumanity 
"  or  injustice,  he  never  could  refrain  his 
"  indignation  ;  he  had  not  learnt,  from  the 
"  school  of  Lord  Chesterfield,  to  smother 
"  every  generous  feeling." 

In  1804  Miss  Seward  published  her  '  Life 
of  Dr.  Darwin.'  It  was  unfortunate  for  his 
fame  that  she  undertook  this  task,  for  she 
knew  nothing  about  science  or  medicine,  and 
the  pretentiousness  of  her  style  is  extremely 
disagreeable,  not  to   say  nauseous,  to  many 

"?  'Monthly  Magazine/  1802,  p.  115. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  7i 

persons;  though  others  like  the  book  much. 
It  abounds  with  inaccuracies,  as  both  my 
father  and  other  members  of  the  family 
asserted  at  the  time  of  its  publication.  For 
instance,  she  states  that  when  dying  he  sent 
for  Mrs.  Darwin,  and  first  asked  her  and 
then  his  daughter  Emma  to  bleed  him,  and 
gives  their  answers  in  inverted  commas.  But 
the  whole  account  is  a  simple  fiction,  for  he 
expressly  told  his  servant  not  to  call  Mrs. 
Darwin,  but  was  disobeyed  as  the  servant 
saw  how  ill  he  was ;  and  his  daughter  was 
not  even  present.  She  does  not  even  give 
his  age  at  the  time  of  his  death  correctly.  It 
is  also  obvious  that  the  many  long  speeches 
inserted  in  her  book  are  the  work  of  her  own 
imagination,  either  with  some  or  with  no 
foundation. 

She  describes  (p.  406)  his  conduct  when 
he  heard  of  the  suicide  of  his  son  Erasmus, 
who  drowned  himself  during  a  fit  of  tem- 
porary insanity,  as  inhuman  to  an  unpa- 
ralleled degree.  She  asserts  that  when  he 
was  told  that  the  body  "  was  found,  he  ex- 
"  claimed  in  a  low  voice,  '  Poor  insane 
"  *  coward,'  and,  it  is  said,  never  afterwards 
'*  mentioned  the  subject."     Miss  Seward  then 


72  LIFE    OF 

proceeds  (p.  408),  "  this  self-command  enabled 
''  him  to  take  immediate  possession  of  the 
"  premises  bequeathed  to  him  (by  his  son 
"  Erasmus) ;  to  lay  plans  for  their  improve- 
"  ment ;  to  take  pleasure  in  describing  those 
"  plans  to  his  acquaintance,  and  to  determine 
"  to  make  it  his  future  residence  ;  and  all  this 
"  without  seeming  to  recollect  to  how  sad  an 
"  event  he  owed  their  possession  !'* 

The  whole  of  this  account  is  absolutely 
false,  and  when  my  father  demanded  her 
authority,  she  owned  that  it  had  been  given 
merely  on  a  report  at  a  distant  place,  without 
any  inquiry  having  been  made  from  a  single 
person  who  could  have  really  known  what 
happened.  On  the  day  after  the  death  of 
his  son  (Dec.  30th,  1799),  in  a  letter  to 
my  father,  he  says :  "  I  write  in  great 
"  anguish  of  mind  to  acquaint  you  with  a 
"  dreadful  event — your  poor  brother  Erasmus 
"  fell  into  the  water  last  night  at  the  bottom 
^'  of  his  garden,  and  was  drowned."  His 
daughter  Emma,  who  was  with  him  when 
the  news  was  brought  to  him  that  the  body 
had  been  at  last  found,  gave  the  following 
account  of  his  behaviour  to  my  mother  ;  "  He 
*'  immediately  got  up,  but  staggered  so  much 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  73 

"  that  Yioletta   and  I  begged  of  liim  to  sit 
"  down,  which  he  did,   and  leaned  his   head 
"  upon  his  hand  ....  he    was    exceedingly 
"  agitated,   and     did    not  speak     for    many 
"  minutes.     His  first  words  were,  ^  I  beg  you 
"  *  will  not,  any  of  you,  ask  to  see  your  poor 
"  'brother's  corpse;'  and  upon  our  assuring 
"  him  that  we  had  not  the  least  wish  to   do 
"  so,  he    soon   after  said  that   this  was    the 
"  greatest  shock  he  had  felt  since  the  death  of 
"  his  poor  Charles."     Emma  then  asserts  that 
Miss  Seward's  other  statements    are   utterly 
false,  namely^  that  he  never  afterwards  men- 
tioned his  son's  death,  and  that  he  took  imme- 
diate possession  of  the  property  bequeathed  to 
him.     After  alluding  to  other  inaccuracies,  in 
Miss   Seward's   book,  Emma   concludes   in  a 
truly   feminine   and   filial   spirit :  ^'  There  is 
"  nothing  else  of  such  infinite  consequence  as 
"  her  daring  publicly  to  accuse  my  dear  papa  of 
"  want  of  affection  and  feeling  towards  his  son. 
"  How  can  this  be  contradicted  ?     I  want  to 
"•  scratch  a  pen  over  all  the  lies,  and  send  the 
"  book   back  to    Miss   Seward ;    but   maunna 
"  won't  allow  this.     She  thinks  you  and  my 
"  brother  will    think   of  a   better  plan ;    for 
''  myself,  I  should  feel  no  objection  to  swear 


74  LIFE    OF 

"  the  truth  of  what  I  have  said  before  both 
"  houses  of  Parliament." 

In  one  of  my  grandfather's  letters,  dated 
Feb.  8th,  1800,  he  writes  :  "I  am  obhged  as 
'^  executor  daily  to  study  his  (Erasmus's)  ac- 
"  counts,  which  is  both  a  laborious  and 
"  painful  business  to  me."  A  fortnight  after- 
wards he  tells  my  father  about  a  monument 
to  be  erected  to  Erasmus,  and  adds :  "  Mrs. 
"  Darwin  and  I  intend  to  lie  in  Breadsall 
"  church  by  his  side."  Earely  has  a  more  un- 
founded calumn^T-  been  published  about  anyone 
than  the  above  account  given  by  Miss  Seward 
of  Dr.  Darwin's  behaviour  when  he  heard  of 
his  son's  death.* 

That  the  act  of  suicide  was  committed  during 
temporary  insanity  there  can  be  little  doubt.  It 

*  Miss  Seward  published,  on  my  father's  demand,  the  follow- 
ing retractation  in  several  journals,  but  such  retractations  are 
soon  forgotten,  and  the  stigma  remains :  "  The  authoress  of  the 
•  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Darwin,'  since  they  were  published,  has  dis- 
covered, on  the  attestation  of  his  family  and  other  persons  pre- 
sent at  the  juncture,  that  the  statement  given  of  his  exclamation, 
page  406,  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Erasmus  Darwin,  is  entirely  with- 
out foundation ;  and  that  the  doctor,  on  that  melancholy  event, 
gave  amongst  his  own  family,  proofs  of  strong  sensibility  at  the 
time,  and  of  succeeding  regard  to  the  memory  of  his  son,  which 
he  seemed  to  have  a  pride  in  concealing  from  the  world.  In 
justice  to  his  memory,  she  is  desirous  to  correct  the  misinforma- 
tion she  had  received."  ('  Monthly  Magazine,'  1804,  p.  378  ; 
and  other  journals  and  newspapers.) 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  75 

is  known  that  a  change  of  disposition  generally 
precedes  insanity,  and  Erasmus,  from  being 
an  excellent  man  of  business,  had  become 
dilatory  to  an  abnormal  degree.  It  appears 
that  he  had  neglected  to  do  something  of  im- 
portance for  my  father ;  and  my  grandfather, 
nearly  two  years  before  Erasmus's  death, 
wrote  in  his  excuse  to  my  father  (Jan.  8th, 
1798)  as  follows:  *^I  have  not  spoken  to 
him  on  your  affairs,  his  neglect  of  small  busi- 
nesses (as  he  thinks  them,  I  suppose,)  is  a 
constitutional  disease.  I  learnt  yesterday  that 
he  had  like  to  have  been  arrested  for  a  small 
candle  bill  of  3  or  4  pounds  in  London,  which 
had  been  due  4  or  5  years,  and  they  had 
repeatedly  written  to  him  !  and  that  a  trades- 
man in  this  town  has  repeatedly  complained 
to  a  friend  of  his  that  he  owes  Mr.  D. 
£70,  and  cannot  get  him  to  settle  his  ac- 
count. I  write  all  this  to  show  you,  that  his 
neglectful  behaviour  to  you,  was  not  owing 
to  any  disrespect,  or  anger,  but  from  what  ? 
— from  defect  of  voluntary  j^oiner.  AVhenco 
he  procrastinates  for  ever  !" 
He  was  evidently  conscious  himself  c^f  some 
mental   change,  for  he  purchased,  six   weeks 


76  LIFE   OF 

before  his  death,  the  small  estate  of  the 
Priory,  near  Derby ;  where  he  intended, 
though  only  forty  years  old,  to  retire  from 
business,  and  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in 
quiet ;  or,  as  Dr.  Darwin,  who  could  not 
have  foreseen  what  all  this  foreboded,  ex- 
pressed it  (in  a  letter  to  my  father^  Nov. 
28th,  1799),  "to  sleep  away  the  remainder  of 
"  his  life." 

Amongst  the  property  of  Erasmus  my 
grandfather  found  a  little  cross  made  of  platted 
grass  (now  in  my  possession)  gathered  from 
the  tomb  of  Charles,  who  had  died  twenty 
vears  before.  A  week  before  his  own  death, 
he  sent  this  to  my  father  to  be  preserved. 

The  false  reports  about  Dr.  Darwin's 
conduct  on  the  death  of  his  son,  probably 
originated  in  his  strong  dislike  to  affectation, 
or  to  any  display  of  emotion  in  a  man.  He 
therefore  wished  to  conceal  his  own  feelings, 
and  perhaps  did  so  too  effectually.  My  father 
writes  :  "  He  never  would  allow  any  common 
"  acquaintance  to   converse  with    him    upon 

"  any  subject  that  he  felt  poignantly 

"  It   was   his  maxim,  that   in  order  to   feel 
"  cheerful  you  must  appear  to  be  so."     There 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  77 

was,  moreover,  a  vein  of  reserve  in  him.  Miss 
Seward,  in  answer  to  a  remark  by  my  father, 
says  (May  10th,  1802,  i.e.,  before  the  puWica- 
tion  of  the  ^  Memoirs  ')  :  "  Too  well  was  I 
"  acquainted  with  the  disposition  and  habits 
"  of  your  lamented  father,  to  feel  surprise 
"  from  your  telling  me  bow  little  you  had 
"  been  able  to  gather  from  himself  concerning 
"  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  which  pre- 
"  ceded  your  birth,  and  those  which  passed 
"  beneath  the  unobservant  eyes  of  sportive 
"  infancy." 

The  many  friends  and  admirers  of  Dr.  Dar- 
win were  indignant  at  Miss  Seward's  book,  and 
thought  that  it  showed  much  malice  towards 
him.  No  such  impression  was  left  on  my 
mind  when  lately  re-reading  it,  but  only  that 
of  scandalous  negligence,  together,  perhaps, 
with  a  wish  to  excite  attention  to  her  book, 
by  inserting  any  wild  and  injurious  report 
about  him.  The  friends,  however,  of  Dr. 
Darwin  were  right,  for  in  a  letter,  dated  May 
12th,  1802,  written  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  WhalK-y,* 
before  she  published  the  Memoirs,  she  shows 

*  *  Journals  of  Dr.  Whalley/  edited  by  Wick  bam;  not  pub- 
lished until  1863,  vol.  i.  p.  342. 


78  LIFE   OF 

her  true  colours,  and  gives  an  odious  character 
of  "  that  large  mass  of  genius  and  sarcasm,"  as 
she  calls  him :  She  speaks  of  the  "  cold 
"  satiric  atmosphere  around  him,  repulsing 
"  the  confidence  and  the  sympathy  of  friend- 
''  ship/'  And  adds  in  her  usual  stilted  phrase, 
"  Age  did  not  imjDrove  his  heart;  and  on  its 
"  inherent  frost,  poetic  authorism,  commenc- 
"  ing  with  him  after  middle  life,  engrafted 
"  all  its  irritability,  disingenuous  arts,  and 
'^  grudging  jealousy  of  others'  reputation  in 
"  that  science." 

It  is  natural  to  inquire  why  Miss  Seward 
wrote  so  bitterly  about  a  man  with  whom 
she  had  lived  on  intimate  terms  during  many 
years,  and  for  whom  she  often  exj^ressed,  and 
probably  felt,  the  highest  admiration.  The 
only  possible  explanation  appears  to  be  that 
she  had  wished  to  marry  him  after  the  death 
of  his  first  wife  and  before  his  second 
marriage.  This  was  the  case  according  to 
several  members  of  the  family,  and  I  under- 
stood from  my  father  that  he  jDOssessed  docu- 
mentary evidence  (subsequently  destroyed)  to 
this  effect.  This  explains  the  following  sig- 
nificant sentence  in  a  letter  written  to  her  by 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  79 

my  father,  March  5th,  1804,  in  relation  to  her 
account  of  the  suicide  of  Erasmus :  *'  Were 
"  I  to  have  published  my  father's  papers  in 
"  illustration  of  his  conduct,  some  circum- 
"  stances  must  unavoidably  have  appeared, 
"  which  would  have  been  as  unpleasant  for 
"  you  to  read  as  for  me  to  publish."  Disap- 
pointed affection,  with  some  desire  for 
revenge,  renders  her  whole  course  of  conduct 
intelligible. 

.  I  may  here  allude  to  some  calumnies  about 
Dr.  Darwin,  which  appeared  in  1858  in  the 
'  Life '  of  Mrs.  Schimmelpenninck,  who  was  a 
younger  sister  of  Tertius  Galton,  Dr.  Darwin's 
son-in-law.  She  there  says  that  he  scoffed  at 
conscience  and  morality,  disbelieved  in  God, 
and  was  a  coarse  glutton.  These  statements 
are  hardly  worth  notice,  as  they  were  dictated 
in  old  age,  she  having  seen  Dr.  Darwin,  in 
her  own  words,  only  '^  with  the  eyes  of  a 
child."  Nor  was  she  always  a  trustworthy 
person.  I  have  a  copy  of  a  letter  written 
(Feb.  20th,  1871)  by  one  of  her  nieces  to 
Dr.  Dowson^  who  had  used  her  book  in  his 
*  Life  of  Dr.  Darwin,'  and  nothing  can  be  more 
explicit    than    the    remarks    about   her  un- 


80  LIFE   OF 

trustwortliiness.  One  of  her  sisters  also,  in 
speaking  of  these  statements,  says:  "  Thej 
'*  are  facts  distorted,  and  give  a  false  impres- 
"  sion."  With  regard  to  the  charge  of  glut- 
tony, as  Dr.  Darwin  was  a  tall,  bulky  man, 
who  lived  much  on  milk,  fruit,  and  vegetables, 
it  is  probable  that  he  ate  largely,  as  every 
man  must  do  who  works  hard  and  lives  on 
such  a  diet. 

As  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  far  Erasmus 
Darwin  transmitted  his  characteristic  qualities 
of  mind  to  his  descendants,  I  will  give  a  short 
account  of  his  children.  He  had  three  sous 
by  his  first  wife  (besides  two  who  died  in 
infancy),  and  four  sons  and  three  daughters 
by  his  second  wife.  His  eldest  son,  Charles 
(born  September  3,  1758),  was  a  young  man. 
of  extraordinary  promise,  but  died  (May  15, 
1778)  before  he  was  twenty-one  years  old  from 
the  effects  of  a  wound  received  whilst  dissect- 
ing the  brain  of  a  child.  He  inherited  from 
his  father  a  strong  taste  for  various  branches  of 
science,  for  writing  verses,  and  for  mechanics. 
"Tools  were  his   playthings,"    and    making 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  81 

"machines  was  one  of  the  first  efforts  of  his 
•*  ingenuity,  and  one  of  the  first  sources  of 
•*  his  amusement."  * 

He  also  inherited  stammering.  Witli  tlie 
hope  of  curing  him,  his  father  sent  him  to 
France  when  about  eight  years  old  (17G6-67), 
with  a  private  tutor,  thinking  that  if  he  was 
not  allowed  to  speal?:  English  for  a  time,  the 
habit  of  stammering  might  be  lost ;  and  it  is 
a  curious  fact  that  in  after  years  when  speak- 
ing French  he  never  stammered.  At  a  very 
early  age  he  collected  specimens  of  all  kinds. 
When  sixteen  years  old  he  was  sent  for  a  year 
to  Oxford,  but  he  did  not  like  the  place,  and 
^*  thought  (in  the  words  of  his  father)  that  the 
^'  vigour  of  the  mind  languished  in  the  pur- 
"  suit  of  classical  elegance,  like  Hercules  at 
"  the  distaff^  and  sighed  to  be  removed  to  the 
"  robuster  exercise  of  the  medical  school  of 
"  Edinburgh."  He  stayed  three  years  at 
Edinburgh,    working    hard    at    his    medical 

*  These  statements  are  taken  chiefly  from  a  sketch  of  his  life 
published  by  his  father,  Erasmus,  in  1 780,- together  with  two  ol" 
his  posthumous  medical  essays.  See  also  Hutchinson's  *  Bio- 
graphia  Medica,'  1799,  vol.  i.  p.  239  ;  also  '  Biographic 
Universelie,'  vol.  x.  1855 ;  also  an  article  in  the  *  Gentleiuau's 
Magazine,'  September  1st,  1794,  vol. Ixiv.  p.  794, signed  "  A.  D," 
evidently  Professor  Andrew  Duncan,  of  Edinburgh. 


82  LIFE    OP 

studies,  and  attending  "  with  diligence  all  the 
''  sick  poor  of  the  parish  of  Waterleith,  and 
"  supplying  them  with  the  necessary  medi- 
"  cines."  The  ^sculapian  Society  awarded 
him  its  first  gold  medal  for  an  experimental 
enquiry  on  pus  and  mucus.  Notices  of  him 
appeared  in  various  journals;  and  all  the 
writers  agree  about  his  uncommon  energy 
and  abilities.  He  seems,  like  his  father,  to 
have  excited  the  warm  affection  of  his  friends. 
Professor  Andrew  Duncan,  in  whose  family 
vault  Charles  was  buried,  cut  a  lock  of  hair 
from  the  corjDse,  and  took  it  to  a  jeweller, 
whose  apprentice,  afterwards  the  famous  Sir 
H.  Raeburn,  set  it  in  a  locket  for  a  memorial.* 
The  venerable  professor  sj^oke  to  me  about 
him  with  the  warmest  affection  forty-seven 
years  after  his  death,  when  I  w^as  a  young 
medical  student  in  Edinburgh.  The  inscrip- 
tion on  his  tomb,  written  by  his  father,  says, 
with  more  truth  than  is  usual  on  such  occa- 
sions :  "  Possessed  of  uncommon  abilities  and 
**  activity,  he  had  acquired  knowledge  in 
"  every  department  of  medical  and  philoso- 
"^  phical  science,  much  beyond  his  years." 

*  *  Harveian  Discourse,'  by  Professor  A.  Duncan,  1824. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  88 

Dr.  Darwin  was  able  to  reach  Edinburgli 
before  Charles  died,  and  had  at  first  hopes  of 
his  recovery  ;  but  these  hopes,  as  he  informed 
my  father,  **  with  anguish,"  soon  disappeared. 
Two  days  afterwards  he  wrote  to  Wedgwood 
to  the  same  effect,  ending  his  letter  with  tlie 
words,  "  God  bless  you,  my  dear  friend,  may 
"  your  children  succeed  better."  Two  and  a 
half  years  afterwards  he  again  wrote  to 
Wedgwood,  "  I  am  rather  in  a  situation  to 
"  demand  than  to  administer  consolation." 

About  the  character  of  his  second  son, 
Erasmus  (born  1759),  I  have  little  to  say,  for, 
though  he  wrote  poetry,  he  seems  to  have  had 
none  of  the  other  tastes  of  his  father.  He  had, 
however,  his  own  peculiar  tastes,  viz.  gene- 
alogy, the  collecting  of  coins,  and  statistics. 
When  a  boy  he  counted  all  the  nouses  in  the 
city  of  Lichfield,  and  found  out  the  number  of 
inhabitants  in  as  many  as  he  could  ;  he  thus 
made  a  census,  and  when  a  real  one  was  first 
made,  his  estimate  was  found  to  be  nearly 
accurate.  His  disposition  was  quiet  and  re- 
tiring. My  father  had  a  very  high  opinion 
of  his  abilities,  and  this  was  ]n'obably  just, 
for  he  would  not  otherwise  have  been  invited 


84  LIFE   OF 

to  travel  with,  and  pay  long  visits  to,  men 
so  distinguished  in  different  ways  as  Boulton 
the  engineer,  and  Day,  the  morahst  and 
novelist.  He  was  certainly  very  ingenious. 
He  detected  hy  a  singularly  subtle  plan  the 
author  of  a  long  series  of  anonymous  letters, 
which  had  caused,  during  six  or  seven  years, 
extreme  annoyance  and  even  misery  to  many 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  county.  The  author 
was  found  to  be  a  county  gentleman  of  not 
inconsiderable  standing.  He  was  a  successful 
solicitor  in  Lichfield,  but  his  death,  Dec.  30, 
1799,  was  a  sad  one,  as  I  have  already  men- 
tioned. 

The  third  son,  Robert  Waring  Darwin  (my 
father,  born  1766),  did  not  inherit  an}^  apti- 
tude for  poetry  or  mechanics,  nor  did  he 
possess^  as  I  think,  a  scientific  mind.  He 
published,  in  Yol.  Ixxvi.  of  the  '  Philosophical 
Transactions,'  a  paper  on  Ocular  S^Dectra, 
which  Wheatstone  told  me  was  a  remarkable 
production  for  the  period ;  but  I  believe  that 
he  was  largely  aided  in  writing  it  by  his 
father.  He  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  in  1788.  I  cannot  tell  why 
my  father's  mind  did  not  appear  to  me  fitted 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  85 

for  advancing  science  ;  for  he  was  fond  of 
theorising,  and  was  incomparably  the  jnost 
acute  observer  whom  I  ever  knew.  But  his 
powers  in  this  direction  were  exercised  almost 
wholly  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  in  tlie 
observation  of  human  character.  He  intui- 
tively recognised  the  disposition  or  character, 
and  even  read  the  thoughts,  of  those  with 
whom  he  came  into  contact  with  extraordi- 
nary acuteness.  This  skill  partly  accounts 
for  his  great  success  as  a  physician,  for  it 
impressed  his  patients  with  belief  in  him  ; 
and  my  father  used  to  say  that  the  art  of 
gaining  confidence  was  the  chief  element  in 
a  doctor's  worldly  success. 

Erasmus  brought  him  to  Shrewsbuiy 
before  he  was  twenty-one  years  old,  and  left 
him  £20,  saying,  "Let  me  know  when  you 
"want  more,  and  I  will  send  it  you."  His 
uncle,  the  rector  of  Elston,  afterwards  also 
sent  him  £20,  and  this  was  the  sole  pecuniary 
aid  which  he  ever  received.  I  have  heard 
him  say  that  his  practice  during  the  first 
year  allowed  him  to  kee^)  two  horses  and  a 
man-servant.  Erasmus  tells  Mr.  Edgeworth 
that  his  son  Robert,  after   being  settled   in 


86  LIFE    OF 

Shrewsbury  for  only  six  months,  "already 
had  between  forty  and  fifty  patients."  By 
the  second  year  he  was  in  considerable,  and 
ever  afterwards  in  very  large,  practice.  His 
success  was  the  more  remarkable,  as  he  for 
some  time  detested  the  profession,  and  declared 
that  if  he  had  been  sure  of  gaining  £100  a 
year  in  any  other  way  he  would  never  have 
practised  as  a  doctor. 

He  had  an  extraordinary  memory  for  the 
dates  of  certain  events,  so  that  he  knew  the 
day  of  the  birth,  marriage,  and  death  of  most 
of  the  gentlemen  of  Shropshire.  This  power, 
however,  far  from  giving  him  any  pleasure, 
annoyed  him,  for  he  told  me  that  his  memory 
for  dates  reminded  him  of  painful  events,  and 
so  added  to  his  regret  for  the  death  of  old 
friends.  His  spirits  were  generally  high,  and 
he  was  a  great  talker.  He  was  of  an  ex- 
tremely sensitive  nature,  so  that  whatever 
annoyed  or  pained  him,  did  so  to  an  extreme 
degree.  He  was  also  somewhat  easily  roused 
to  anger.  One  of  his  golden  rules  was  never 
to  become  the  friend  of  any  one  whom  you 
could  not  thoroughly  respect,  and  I  think  he 
always  acted  on  it.     But  of  all  his  charac- 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  87 

teristic  qualities,  his  sympathy  was  pre-emi- 
nent, and  I  believe  it  was  this  whicli  made 
him  for  a  time  hate  his  profession,  as  it  con- 
stantly brought  suffering  before  his  eyes. 
Sympathy  with  the  joy  of  others  is  a  much 
rarer  endowment  than  sympathy  with  their 
pains,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
to  give  pleasure  to  others  was  to  my  father 
an  inteuse  pleasure.  He  died  November  13th, 
1849.  A  short  notice  of  his  life  appeared  in 
the  *  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society.' 

Of  the  children  of  Erasmus  by  his  second 
marriage,  one  son  became  a  cavalry  officer,  a 
second  rector  of  Elston,  and  a  third,  Francis 
(born  1786,  died  1859),  a  physician,  who 
travelled  far  in  countries  rarely  visited  in 
those  days.  He  showed  his  taste  for  Natural 
History  by  being  fond  of  keeping  a  number 
of  wild  and  curious  animals.  I  may  add  that 
one  of  his  sons.  Captain  Darwin,  is  a  great 
sportsman,  and  has  published  a  little  book, 
the  'Gamekeeper's  Manual'  (4th  ed.  1863), 
which  shows  keen  observation  and  knowledge 
of  the  habits  of  various  animals.  The  eldest 
daughter  of  Erasmus,  Yioletta,  married  S. 
Tertius  Galtou,  and  I  feel  sure  that  their  sun, 


88  LIFE   OP 

Francis,*  will  be  willing  to  attribute  the  re- 
markable originality  of  his  mind  in  large  part 
to  inheritance  from  his  maternal  grandfather.! 

As  Dr.  Krause  has  so  fully  discussed  Dr. 
Darwin's  published  writings  I  have  but  little 
to  say  about  them.  After  settling  at  Lich- 
field, he  attended,  during  several  years,  chiefly 
to  medicine ;  but  no  doubt  he  was  continu- 
ally observing  and  making  notes  on  various 
subjects.  A  huge  folio  common-place  book, 
begun  in  1776,  is  in  the  possession  of  Reginald 
Darwin  and  is  half  filled  with  notes  and  specu- 
lations. Considering  how  voluminous  a  writer 
he  became  when  old,  it  is  remarkable  that  he 
does  not  apj^ear  to  have  thought  for  a  long 
time  of  publishing  either  prose  or  poetry.  In 
a  letter  dated  Nov.  21st,  1775;  (astat.  43)  to 

*  Author  of  "  Hereditary  Genius,"  "  English  Men  of  Science," 
and  of  other  works  and  papers. 

t  Tn  the  interval  between  his  first  and  second  roamages,  Dr. 
Darwin  became  the  father  of  two  illegitimate  daughters.  In  our 
present  state  of  society  it  may  seem  a  strange  fact  that  my 
grandfather's  practice  as  a  physician  should  not  have  suffered  by 
his  openly  bringing  up  illegitimate  children.  But  to  his  credit 
be  it  said  that  he  gave  them  a  good  education,  and  from  all  that 
I  have  heard  they  grew  up  to  be  excellent  women,  and  lived  on 
intimate  terms  with  his  vddow  and  the  children  by  the  second 


marriage. 


ERA'SMUS    DARWIN.  89 

Mr.  Cradock,*  thanking  him  for  a  present 
of  his  'Village  Memoirs,'  he  says:  *' I  have 
**  for  twenty  years  neglected  the  muses,  and 
''  cultivated  medicine  alone  with  all  my  iu- 
^'  dustry  ...  I  lately  interceded  with 
"  a  Derbyshire  lady  to  desist  from  lopping  a 
'•'  grove  of  trees,  which  has  occasioned  me  to 
"  try  again  the  long-neglected  art  of  verse- 
*'  making,  which  I  shall  inclose  to  amuse  you, 
"  promising,  at  the  same  time,  never  to  write 
"  another  verse  a?  long  as  I  live,  but  to  apply 
**  my  time  to  finishing  a  work  on  some  branches 
''  of  medicine,  which  I  intend  for  posthumous 
"  publication." 

In  1778  he  purchased  about  eight  acres  of 
land  near  Lichfield,  which  he  made  into  a 
botanic  garden ;  and  this  seems  to  have  been 
his  chief  amusement.  "  This  wild  umbrageous 
"  valley  .  .  .  irriguous  from  various 
"  springs,  and  swampy  from  their  i^lenitude," 
as  Miss  Seward  calls  it,f  now  forms  part  of  an 
adjoining  park  ;  and  a  Handbook  for  Lichfield 
describes  it  as  still  "  a  wild  spot,  but  very 
"  picturesque;  many  of  the  old  trees  remain- 

*  *  Literary  Memoirs,'  1828,  vol.  iv.  p.  1 43. 

t  *  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Dr.  Darwin/  1804,  p.  125. 


90  LIFE    OF 

"  ing,  and  occasionally  a  few  Darwinian  snow- 
"  drops  and  daffodils  peeping  tlirougli"  the 
"  turf,  and  bravely  fighting  the  battle  of  life." 
This  garden  led  him  to  write  his  poem  of 
the  'Botanic  G-arden,'  the  second  part  of 
which,  entitled  the  'Loves  of  the  Plants,'  was 
published,  oddly  enough,  before  the  first  part 
called  the  'Economy  of  Vegetation.'  The 
'  Loves  of  the  Plants,'  judging  from  a  prefixed 
sonnet,  must  have  appeared  in  1788,  and  the 
second  edition  in  1790.  Miss  Seward,  in  her 
life  of  Dr.  Darwin,  accuses  him  of  having 
appropriated  several  of  her  verses,  and  of  pub- 
lishing them  in  this  poem  without  any  acknow- 
ledgment. The  case  is  a  very  odd  one;  for 
first,  she  herself  admits*  that  it  was  entirely 
through  his  instrumentality  that  these  verses 
were  published  with  her  name  attached  to 
them,  before  the  appearance  of  the  '  Botanic 
Garden,'  in  the  '  Monthly  Magazine,'  and  after- 
wards in  the  '  Annual  Eegister.'  Secondly, 
there  seems  to  have  been  little  temptation  for 
the  theft,  for  the  whole  history  of  his  life 
shows  that  writing  verses  on  any  subject  was 
not  the  least  labour  to  him,  but  only  a  pleasure. 

*  *  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Darwin/  p.  132. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  91 

And  thirdly,  that  Miss  Seward  remained  on 
the  same  friendly,  ahnost  playful,  terms  with 
him  afterwards  as  before.  The  whole  case  is 
unintelligible,  and  in  some  respects  looks  more 
like  highway  robbery  than  simple  plagiarism. 
Mr.  Edgeworth,  in  a  letter  (Feb.  3,  1812)  to 
Sir  Walter  Scott,*  says  that  he  had  expressed 
surprise  to  Dr.  Darwin  at  seeing  Miss  Seward's 
lines  at  the  beginning  of  his  poem,  and  that 
Dr.  Darwin  replied :  "  It  was  a  compliment 
**  which  he  thought  himself  bound  to  pay  to  a 
"  lady,  though  the  verses  were  not  of  the  same 
**  tenor  as  his  own."  But  this  seems  a  lame 
excuse,  and  it  is  an  odd  sort  of  compliment  to 
take  the  verses  without  any  acknowledgment. 
Perhaps  he  thought  it  fair  play,  for  Edge- 
worth  goes  on  to  say  that  "  Miss  Seward's  *  Ode 
"  *  to  Captain  Cook  '  stands  deservedly  high 
*'  in  public  opinion.  Now  to  my  certain  know- 
*^  ledge  most  of  the  passages  which  have  been 
"  selected  in  the  various  reviews  of  the  work 
"  were  written  by  Dr.  Darwin.  ...  I  knew 
"  him  well,  and  it  was  as  far  from  his  temper 
"  and  habits,  as  it  was  unnecessary  to  his 
"  acquirements,  to  beg,  borrow,  or  steal  from 
*'  any  person  on  earth."     These  passages  at 

*  '  Memoirs  of  R.  L.  Edgeworth,'  2m]  ed.  1821,  vol.  ii.  p.  215. 


92  LIFE    OF 

any  rate  show  how  true  and  ardent  a  friend 
Edgeworth  was  to  Dr.  Darwin  long  after  his 
death. 

In  a  letter  to  my  father,  dated  Feb.  21st, 
1788,  he  says :  "  I  am  printing  the  '  Loves  of 
"  the  Plants/  which  I  shall  not  put  my  name 
"  to,  tho'  it  will  be  known  to  many.  But 
"  the  addition  of  my  name  would  seem  as  if 
"  I  thought  it  a  work  of  consequence."  Not- 
withstanding this  depreciatory  estimate,  its 
success  was  great  and  immediate  ;  and  I  have 
heard  my  father,  who  was  accurate  about 
figures,  say  that  a  thousand  guineas  were 
paid  before  publication  for  the  part  which 
was  published  last ;  an  amount  which  must 
have  been  something  extraordinary  in  those 
days.  Nor  was  the  success  quite  transitory, 
for  a  fourth  edition  appeared  in  1799.  In 
1 806  an  octavo  edition  of  all  his  poetical  works 
was  published  in  three  volumes.  I  have  my- 
self met  with  old  men  who  spoke  with  a 
degree  of  enthusiasm  about  his  poetry,  quite 
incomprehensible  at  the  present  day.  Horace 
Walpole,  in  his  letters  repeatedly  alludes 
with  admiration  to  Dr.  Darwin's  poetry,  and 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Barrett  (May  14th,  1792) 
writes ; — 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  93 

"  The  *  Triumph  of  Flora/  beginning  at  the 
"  fiftj-ninth  line,  is  most  beautifully  and  en- 
"  chantingly  imagined  ;  and  the  twelve  verses 
"  that  by  miracle  describe  and  comprehend 
"  the  creation  of  the  universe  out  of  chaos, 
"  are  in  my  opinion  the  most  sublime  pas- 
"  sages  in  any  author,  or  in  any  of  the  few 
"  languages  with  which  I  am  acquainted. 
"  There  are  a  thousand  other  verses  most 
"  charming,  or  indeed  all  are  so,  crowded 
"  with  most  poetic  imagery,  gorgeous  epi- 
"  thets  and  style  :  and  yet  these  four  cantos 
"  diO  not  please  me  equally  with  the  *  Loves  of 
"  the  Plants.' "  The  lines  thus  eulogised 
are : — 


(( 


—  Let  there  be  light ! "  proclaimed  the  Almighty  Lord. 
Astonished  Chaos  heard  the  potent  word ; — 
Through  all  his  realms  the  kindling  Ether  runs, 
And  the  mass  starts  into  a  million  suns ; 
Earths  round  each  sun  with  quick  explosions  burst. 
And  second  planets  issue  from  the  first ; 
Bend,  as  they  journey  with  projectile  force, 
In  bright  ellipses  their  reluctant  course ; 
Orbs  wheel  in  orbs,  round  centres  centres  roll, 
And  form,  self-balanced,  one  revolving  whole. 
Onward  they  move  amid  their  bright  abode. 
Space  without  bound,  the  Bosom  of  their  God  ! 

('  The  Botanic  Garden,'  part  i.  canto  i.  lines  103-lli.) 
6 


94  LIFE    OF 

Mr.  Edge  worth,  in  a  letter  (1790)  to 
Dr.  Darwin,  writes  about  tlie  '  Botanic  Gar- 
den :'*  "I  may,  however,  without  wounding 
"  your  delicacy,  say  that  it  has  silenced  for 
"  ever  the  complaints  of  poets,  who  lament 
"  that  Homer,  Milton,  Shakespeare,  and  a 
"  few  classics,  had  left  nothing  new  to  de- 
"  scribe,  and  that  elegant  imitation  of  imita- 
"  tions  was  all  that  could  be  expected  in 
"  modern  poetry.  ...  I  read  the  descrip- 
"  tion  of  the  Ballet  of  Medea  to  my  sisters, 
'*  and  to  eight -or  ten  of  my  own  family.  It 
"  seized  such  hold  of  my  imagination,  that 
"  my  blood  thrilled  back  through  my  veins, 
"  and  my  hair  broke  the  cementing  of  the 
"  friseur  to  gain  the  attitude  of  horror." 
After  the  fame  of  his  poetry  had  begun  to 
wane,  Edgeworth  predicted  (p.  117)  ^' that  in 
"  future  times  some  critic  will  arise  who  shall 
"  rediscover  the  '  Botanic  Garden,'  and  build 
"his  fame  upon  the  discovery."  *' It  will 
"  shine  out  again,  the  admiration  of  posterity." 

Several  poets  addressed  him  in  compli- 
mentary odes,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  edition 

*  'Memoir   of   R.  L.    Edgeworth,'    2nd  ed.   1821,   vol.   ii. 
p.  111. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN".  95 

of  1806.  Cowper,  wlio^  one  would  have 
thought,  differed  in  taste  from  him  as  much 
as  one  man  could  from  another,  yet,  in  con- 
junction with  Hay  ley,  wrote  a  poem  in  his 
honour,*  beginning  : 

No  envy  mingles  with  our  praise, 

Tho'  could  our  hearts  repine 
At  any  poet's  happier  lays, 

They  would,  they  must,  at  thine. 

Notwithstanding  the  former  high  estimation 
of  his  poetry  by  men  of  all  kinds  in  England, 
no  one  of  the  present  generation  reads,  as  it 
appears,  a  single  line  of  it.  So  complete  a 
reversal  of  judgment  within  a  few  years  is  a 
remarkable  phenomenon.  His  verses  were, 
however,  quizzed  by  some  persons  not  long 
after  their  publication.  In  the  '  Pursuits  of 
Literature,'!  they  are  called : 

"  Filmy,  gauzy,  gossamery  lines. 

***** 

Sweet  tetrandrian,  monogynian  strains." 

But  the  sudden  downfall  of  his  fame  as  a 
poet  was  in  great  part  caused  by  the  publica- 
tion of  the  well-known  parody  the  ^  Loves  of 

♦  Pated  June  23,  1793,  and  published  in  the  'Monthly 
Magazine,'  1803,  vol.  ii.  p.  100. 

t  •  Pursuits  of  Literature.'  A  Satirical  Poem  in  Four  Dia- 
logues; 14th  ed.  1808,  p.  54. 


96  LIFE    OF 

the   Triangles.'     No   doubt  public  taste  was 
at  this  time  changing,  and   becoming  more 
simple   and   natural.     It   was   generally   ac- 
knowledged, under  the  guidance  of  Words- 
worth and  Coleridge,  that  poetry  was  chiefly 
concerned  with  the  feelings  and  deeper  work- 
ings of  the  mind ;  whereas,  Darwin  maintained 
that  poetry  ought  chiefly  to  confine  itself  to 
the  word-painting  of  visible  objects.     He  re- 
marks    ('  Loves   of    the   Plants ' :    Interlude 
between    Cantos    I.    and    II.)    that    poetry 
should  consist  of  words  which  express  ideas 
originally   received   by   the    organ  of  sight. 
"...  And  as  our  ideas  derived  from  visible 
"  objects  are  more  distinct  than  those  derived 
"  from  the  objects  of  our  other  senses,  the 
"  words  expressive  of  these  ideas  belonging 
"  to  vision   make   up   the   jDrincipal  part  of 
"  poetic  language.     That  is,  the  poet  writes 
"  jDrincipally  for  the  eye  ;    the  prose  writer 
"  uses  more  abstracted  terms."     It  must  be 
admitted  that  he  was  a  great  master  of  lan- 
guage.    In  one  of  the  earliest  and  best  criti- 
cisms on  his  poetry*  it  is  said  no  man  "  had  a 

*  '  Monthly   Magazine  or   British  Register,'  1802,  vol.  xiii. 
pp.  457-463. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  9  7 

"  more  imperial  command  of  words,  or  could 
"  elucidate  with  such  accuracy  and  elegance 
"  the  most  complex  and  intricate  machinery." 
Byron  called  him  '*  a  mighty  master  of  un- 
meaning rhyme." 

His  first  scientific  publication  was  a  paper 
in  the  'Philosophical  Transactions'  for  1757, 
in  which  he  confutes  the  view  of  Mr.  Eeles, 
that  vapour  ascends  through  "  every  particle, 
being  endued  with  a  portion  of  electric  fire." 
The  paper  is  of  no  value,  but  is  curious  as 
showing  in  what  a  rudimentary  conditio q 
some  branches  of  science  then  were.  For  Dr. 
Darwin  remarks  that  the  "  distinction  has  not 
"  been  sufficiently  considered  by  anyone  to 
"  my  knowledge  "  between  '*  the  immense 
"  rarefaction  of  explosive  bodies  "  due  "  to  the 
"  escape  of  air  before  condensed  in  them,"  as 
when  a  few  grains  of  gunpowder  are  ex- 
ploded in  a  bladder,  and  to  ^'  the  expansion 
"  of  the  constituent  parts  of  those  bodies " 
through  heat,  as  with  steam. 

The  following  speculative  letter  (though  not 
published)  is  interesting  ;  but  its  date  must  be 
borne  in  mind  in  judging  of  its  merits. 


98  LIFE    OF 

Erasmus  Darwin  to  Josiah  Wedgwood. 

DeAE  Sir,  March,  1784. 

I  admire  the  way  in  which  you  support  your 
new  theory  of  freezing  steam.  You  say,  "  Will  not 
vapour  freeze  with  a  less  degree  of  cold  than  water 
in  the  mass?  instances  hoar-frost,  &c."  Now  this 
same  et  caster  a,  my  dear  friend,  seems  to  me  to  be  a 
gentleman  of  such  consequence  to  your  theory,  that 
I  wish  he  would  unfold  himself  a  little  more. 

I  sent  an  account  of  your  experiment  to  Mr. 
Robert,  and  desired  him  to  show  it  to  Dr.  Black,  so 
that  I  shall  hope  some  time  to  hear  his  opinion  on 
the  very  curious  fact  you  mention,  of  a  part  of  ice 
(during  a  thaw)  freezing  whilst  you  applied  a  heated 
body  to  another  part  of  it.  Now  in  spite  of  your 
et  csetera,  I  know  no  fact  to  ascertain  that  vapour 
will  freeze  with  less  cold  than  water.  I  can  in  no 
way  understand  why,  during  the  time  you  apply  a 
heated  body  to  one  part  of  a  piece  of  ice,  when  the 
air  of  your  room  was  at  50°  and  the  ice  had  for  a  day 
or  two  been  in  a  thawing  state,  that  a  congelation 
should  be  formed  on  another  part  of  the  same  ice, 
but  from  the  following  circumstances.  There  is 
great  analogy  between  the  laws  of  the  propagation  of 
heat,  and  those  of  electricity,  such  as  the  same  bodies 
communicate  them  easily,  as  metals,  and  the  same 
bodies  with  more  difficulty,  as  glass,  wax,  air :  they  are 
both  excitable  by  friction,  both  give  light,  fuse  metals. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  99 

et  caetera.  Tlierefore  I  suppose  that  atmospheres  of  heat 
of  different  densities,  like  atmospheres  of  electricity, 
will  repel  each  other  at  certain  distances,  like  globules 
of  quicksilver  pressed  against  each  other,  and  that 
hence  by  applying  a  heated  body  near  one  end  of  a 
cold  body,  the  more  distant  end  may  immediately 
become  colder  than  the  end  nearest  to  the  heated 
body. 

March  11,  1784.  Since  I  wrote  the  above  I  have 
reconsidered  the  matter,  and  am  of  opinion  that 
steam,  as  it  contains  more  of  the  element  of  heat 
than  water,  must  require  more  absolute  cold  to  turn 
it  into  ice,  though  the  same  sensible  cold,  as  is  neces- 
sary to  freeze  water,  and  that  the  phenomenon  you 
have  observed,  depends  on  a  circumstance  which  has 
not  been  attended  to.  When  water  is  cooled  down 
to  freezing  point,  its  particles  come  so  near  together, 
as  to  be  within  the  sphere  of  their  reciprocal  attrac- 
tions;— what  then  happens? — they  accede  with  vio- 
lence to  each  other  and  become  a  solid,  at  the  same 
time  pressing  out  from  between  them  some  air, 
which  is  seen  to  form  bubbles  in  ice  and  renders  the 
whole  mass  lighter  than  w^ater  (on  which  it  will 
swim)  by  this  air  having  regained  its  elasticity ;  and 
pressing  out  any  saline  matters,  as  sea-salt,  or  blue 
vitriol,  which  have  become  dissolved  in  it ;  and  lastly 
by  thus  forcibly  acceding  together,  the  particles  of 
water  press  out  also  some  more  heat,  as  is  seen  by 
the   rising  of  the  thermometer  immersed  in  such 


100  LIFE  OF 

freezing  water.  This  last  circumstance  demands 
your  nice  attention,  as  it  explains  the  curious  fact 
you  have  observed.  When  the  lieat  is  so  far  taken 
away  from  water,  that  the  particles  attract  each 
other,  they  run  together  with  violence,  and  press  out 
some  remaining  heat,  which  existed  in  their  inter- 
stices. Then  the  contrary  must  also  take  place  when 
you  add  heat  to  ice,  so  as  to  remove  the  particles 
into  their  reciprocal  spheres  of  repulsion  :  they  recede 
from  each  other  violently,  and  thence  attract  more 
heat  into  their  interstices ;  and  if  your  piece  of  hot 
silver  is  become  cold,  and  has  no  more  heat  to  give, 
or  if  this  thawing  water  in  this  its  expansile  state  is 
in  contact  with  other  water  which  is  saturated  with 
heat,  it  will  rob  it  of  a  part,  or  produce  freezing  if 
that  water  was  but  a  little  above  32°. 

I  don't  know  if  I  have  expressed  myself  intelli- 
gibly. I  shall  relate  an  experiment  I  made  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  which  confirms  your  fact.  I  filled  a 
brewing-copper,  which  held  about  a  hogshead  and 
half,  with  snow ;  and  immersed  about  half-an-ounce  of 
w^ater  at  the  bottom  of  a  glass  tube  in  this  snow,  as 
near  the  centre  as  I  could  guess,  and  then  making  a 
brisk  and  hasty  wood-fire  under  it,  and  letting  the 
water  run  off  by  a  cock  as  fast  as  it  melted,  I  found 
in  a  few  minutes  on  taking  out  the  tube  that  the  water 
in  it  was  frozen.  This  experiment  coincides  with 
yours,  and  I  think  can  only  be  explained  on  the  above 
principle.     In  support  of  the  above  theory  I  can 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  101 

prove  from  some  experiments,  that  air  when  it  is 
mechanically  expanded  always  attracts  heat  from 
the  bodies  in  its  vicinity,  and  therefore  water  when 
expanded  should  do  the  same.  But  this  would 
lengthen  out  my  letter  another  sheet ;  I  shall  there- 
fore defer  it  till  I  have  the  pleasure  of  a  personal 
conference  with  you.  Thus  ice  in  freezing  gives  out 
heat  suddenly,  and  in  thawing  gives  out  cold  sud- 
denly; but  this  last  fact  had  not  been  observed 
(except  in  chemical  mixtures)  because  when  heat  has 
been  applied  to  thaw  ice,  it  has  been  applied  in  too 
great  quantities. 

When  shall  we  meet  ?  Our  little  boy  has  got  the 
ague,  and  will  not  take  bark,  and  Mrs.  Darwin  is 
therefore  unwilling  to  leave  him,  and  begs  to  defer 
her  journey  to  Etruria  till  later  in  the  season.  Pray 
come  this  way  to  London  or  from  London.  Our  best 
compts.  to  all  yours. 

Adieu, 

E.  Darwin. 

P.S. — Water  cooled  beneath  32°,  becomes  in- 
stantly ice  on  any  small  agitation,  or  pouring  out 
of  one  vessel  into  another,  because  that  the  accession 
of  the  particles  to  each  other,  and  the  pressing  out 
of  the  air,  or  saline  matters,  and  of  heat  is  facili- 
tated. 

The  '  Zoonomia,'  which  had  been  in  prepara- 
tion during  many    years,    was    published  in 


102  LIFE    OF 

1794.     We   have   seen  that  in   1775  it  was 

intended  for  posthumous  publication.     Even 

so  late  as  Feb.  1792,  Dr.  Darwin  wrote  to  my 

father  : — "  I  am    studying    my    *  Zoonomia/ 

"  which  I  think  I  shall  publish,  in  hopes  of 

*'  selling  it,  as  I  am  now  too  old  and  hardened 

"  to  fear  a  little  abuse.     Every  John  Hunter 

''  must  expect  a  Jessy  Foot  to  pursue  him,  as  a 

"  fly  bites  a  horse."    The  work  when  published 

was   translated   into   German,    French,    and 

Italian,   and  was  honoured  by  the  Pope  by 

being  placed   in  the  *  Index  Expurgatorius.' 

Dr.  Krause  has  given  so  full,  impartial,  and 

interesting  an  account  of  the  scientific  views 

contained    in  this  and  his  other  works  that 

I   need    say  little  on   this    head.      Although 

he  indulged  largely  in  hypotheses,  he  knew 

full   well   the  value  of  experiments.     Maria 

Edge  worth,  in    writing    (March    9th,  1792) 

about  her  little  brother  Henry,  who  was  fond 

of  collecting  and  observing,  says  : — '^  He  will 

"  at   least    never  come   under    Dr.  Darwin's 

*'  definition  of  a  fool.    *  A  fool,  Mr.  Edge  worth, 

" '  you  know,  is  a   man  who  never  tried  an 

experiment  in  his  life. '  "  *     Again,  in  an 

*  ♦  Memoir  of  Maria  Edgeworth,'  1867,  vol.  1.  p., 31. 


u  i 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  103 

Apology^  prefixed  to  the  *  Botanic  Garden,'  we 
have  the  following  just  remarks  : — "It  may 

*  be  proper  here  to  apologise  for  many  of  the 
'  subsequent  conjectures  on  some  articles  of 
'  natural  philosophy,  as  not  being  supported  by 

*  accurate  investigation,  or  conclusive  experi- 
'  ments.  Extravagant  theories,  however,  in 
'  those  parts  of  philosophy,  where  our  know- 
^  ledge  is  yet  imperfect,  are  not  without  their 
'  use ;  as  they  encourage  .the  execution  of 
^  laborious  experiments,  or  the  investigation 
'  of  ingenious  deductions  to  confirm  or  refute 
'•  them.  And  since  natural  objects  are  allied 
'  to  each  other  by  many  affinities,  every 
'  kind  of  theoretic  distribution  of  them  adds 

*  to  our  knowledge  by  developing  some  of 
'  their  analogies." 

Dr.  Darwin  proved  himself  more  ready  to 
admit  those  new  and  grand  views  in  chemistry 
(a  branch  of  science  which  always  greatly 
interested  him)  which  were  developed 
towai'ds  the  close  of  the  last  century,  than 
some  professed  chemists.  James  Keir,  a 
distinguished  chemist  of  the  day,  writing  to 
him  in  March  1790,  says*  :  "You   are  such 

*  *  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  James  Keir,  F.H.S.'  p.  111. 


104  LIFE    OF 

"  an  infidel  in  religion  that  you  cannot  believe 
"  in  transubstantiation,  yet  you  can  believe 
''  that  apples  and  pears,  &c.,  sugar,  oil, 
"  vinegar,  are  nothing  but  water  and  char- 
"  coal,  and  that  it  is  a  great  improvement  in 
"  language  to  call  all  these  things  by  one 
''  word— oxyde  hydro-carbonneux." 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  psychology  in  the 
'  Zoonomia,'  but  I  fear  that  his  speculations  on 
this  subject  cannot  be  held  to  have  much 
value.  Nevertheless^  Gr.  H.  Lewes  says  of 
him*:  "Although  even  more  neglected  than 
"  Hartley  by  the  present  generation,  Darwin, 
"  once  so  celebrated,  deserves  mention  here 
"  as  one  of  the  psychologists  who  aimed  at 
*^  establishing  the  physiological  basis  of  mental 
*'  phenomena."  And  again :  "  Had  Darwin 
"  left  us  only  the  passage  just  cited  f  we 
"  should  have  credited  him  with  a  profounder 
'*  insight  into  psychology  than  any  of  his 
"•  contemporaries  and  the  majority  of  his  suc- 
"  cessors  exhibit ;  and  although  the  perusal  of 
'^  '  Zoonomia '  must  convince  everyone  that 
"  Darwin's  system  is  built  up  of  absurd  hypo- 

*  '  History  of  Philosophy,'  3rd  ed.  1867,  vol.  ii.  p.  356. 
t  '  Zoonomia,'  vol.  i.  p.  27. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  105 

*'  theses,  Darwin  deserves  a  place  in  history 
"  for  that  one  admirable  conception  of  psy- 
"  chology  as  subordinate  to  the  laws  of  life." 
The  illustrious  Johannes  Miiller  quotes  with 
approbation,  though  with  correction,  his  '  law 
of  associated  movements.'  * 

The  '  Zoonomia '  is  largely  devoted  to 
medicine,  and  my  father  thought  that  it  had 
much  influenced  medical  practice  in  England  ; 
he  was  of  course  a  partial,  yet  naturally  a  more 
observant  judge  than  others  on  this  point.  The 
book  when  published  was  extensively  read  by 
the  medical  men  of  the  day,  and  the  author 
was  highly  esteemed  by  them  as  a  practitioner. 
The  following  curious  story,  written  down  by 
his  daughter,  Yioletta,  in  her  old  age^  shows 
his  repute  as  a  physician.  A  gentleman  in 
the  last  stage  of  consumption  came  to  Dr. 
Darwin  at  Derby,  and  expressed  himself  to 
this  effect :  "  I  am  come  from  London  to  con- 
"  suit  you,  as  the  greatest  physician  in  the 
"  world,  to  hear  from  you  if  there  is  any  hope 
**  in  my  case  ;  I  know  that  my  life  haugs  upon 
''  a  thread,  but  while  there  is  life  there  may 

*  Miiller's  *  Elements  of  Physiology,'  trauslated  by  Baly,  1842, 
p.  943. 


106  LIFE   OF 

"  be  hope.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
*'  for  me  to  settle  my  worldly  affairs  immedi- 
"  ately;  therefore  I  trust  that  you  will 
"  not  deceive  me,  but  tell  me  without  hesi- 
"  tatioii  your  candid  opinion."  Dr.  Darwin 
felt  his  pulse,  and  minutely  examined  him^ 
and  said  he  was  sorry  to  say  there  was  no 
hope.  After  a  pause  of  a  few  minutes  the 
gentleman  said  :  ^'  How  long  can  I  live  ?  " 
The  answer  was  :  "  Perhaps  a  fortnight."  The 
gentleman  seized  Dr.  Darwin's  hand  and  said  : 
''  Thank  you,  doctor,  I  thank  you;  my  mind 
'*  is  satisfied ;  I  now  know  there  is  no  hope  for 
*^  me."  Dr.  Darwin  then  said  :  "  But  as  you 
*'  come  from  London,  why  did  you  not  consult 
"  Dr.  Warren,  so  celebrated  a  physician  ? " 
"  Alas  !  doctor,  I  am  Dr.  Warren."  He  died 
in  a  week  or  two  afterwards. 

I  remember  only  two  points,  with  respect 
to  which  my  father  thought  that  medical 
practice  in  this  country  had  been  influenced 
by  the  '  Zoonomia.'  *  In  this  work  it  is  said : 
"  There  is  a  golden  rule  by  which  the  neces- 

*  *  Zoonomia,'  1794,  vol.  i.  p.  99.  I  was  led  to  searcli  for 
this  passage  by  its  having  been  given  by  Dr.  Dowson  in  his 
*  Erasmus  Darv/in :  Philosopher,  Poet,  and  Physician,'  1861, 
p.  46. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  10/ 

"  sary  and  useful  quantity  of  stimulus  in 
"  fevers  with  debility  may  be  ascertained. 
"  When  wine  or  beer  is  exhibited,  either 
"  alone  or  diluted  with  water,  if  the  pulse 
"  becomes  slower  the  stimulus  is  of  a  proper 
"  quantity,  and  should  be  repeated  every  two 
"  or  three  hours,  or  when  the  pulse  again 
"  becomes  quicker."  The  value  of  this 
"  golden  rule"  will  be  ajopreciated  when  it 
is  remembered  that  the  high  importance  of 
stimulants  in  fever  has  only  rather  recently 
been  recognised  and  acted  on.  His  views 
on  fever  certainly  attracted  attention  at  the 
time  ;  *  but  the  use  of  stimulants  in  such 
cases  has  fluctuated  much,  and  the  history 
of  the  subject  is  an  obscure  one,  as  I  infer 
from  a  letter  which  Sir  Robert  Christison 
has  had  the  kindness  to  send  me. 

The  second  point  mentioned  by  my  father, 
was  the  treatment  of  the  insane.  After  say- 
ing f  that  no  lunatic  should  be  restrained 
unless  he  be  dangerous.  Dr.  Darwin  urges 
that    in    some    cases    "  confinement    retards 

*  See,  for  instance,  Dr.  Baeta's  work,  '  Comparative  View  of 
the  Theories  and  Practice  of  Drs.  Culjen,  Brown,  and  Darwnn' : 
published  in  1800. 

t  '  Zoouomia;  vol.  ii.  1796,  p.  352. 


108  LIFE   OF 

"  rather  than  promotes  their  cure,  which  is 
"  forwarded  by  change  of  ideas,  &c."  He 
then  remarks  that  mistaken  ideas  do  not  by 
themselves  justify  confinement,  and  adds : 
"  If  everyone  who  possesses  mistaken  ideas, 
"  or  who  puts  false  estimates  on  things,  was 
"  liable  to  confinement,  I  know  not  who  of 
"  my  readers  might  not  tremble  at  the  sight 
"  of  a  madhouse." 

In  connection  with  this  subject,  the  follow- 
ing quotation  from  Dr.  Maudsley  is  interest- 
ing :  *  '*  Here  I  may  fitly  take  occasion  to 
"  adduce  certain  observations  with  regard 
"  to  the  striking  manner  in  which  diseased 
"  action  of  one  nervous  centre  is  sometimes 
'^  transferred  suddenly  to  another,  a  fact 
•'  which,  though  it  has  lately  attracted  new 
"  attention,  was  long  since  noticed  and  com- 
*'  mented  on  by  Dr.  Darwin :  *  In  some  con- 
''  *  vulsive  diseases,'  he  writes,  '  a  delirium 
"  'or  insanity  supervenes,  and  the  convul- 
"'  '  sions  cease ;  and  conversely,  the  convul- 
''  '  sions  shall  supervene,  and  the  delirium 
"  '  cease.     Of  this    I   have   been    a   witness 


*  I 


Patholgy  of  Mind,'  1879,  p.  229. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN-.  109 

"  '  many  times  a  day,  in  the  paroxysms  of 
''  '  violent  epileptics,  which  evinces  that  one 
"  '  kind  of  delirium  is  a  convulsion  of  the 
"  '  organs  of  sense,  and  that  our  ideas  are 
"  '  the  motions  of  those  organs.'  " 

Dr.  Lauder  Brunton  has  mentioned  to  me 
another  instance  in  which  Dr.  Darwin  appa- 
rently anticijDated  a  modern  discovery. 

In  an  article  in  the  '  British  Medical  Journal ' 
(1873,  p.  735)  on  *' catching  cold,"  Dr.  Brun- 
ton gives  an  account  of  Rosenthal's  experi- 
ments, showing  that  when  an  animal  is 
exposed  to  a  rather  high  temperature,  "the 
"  cutaneous  vessels  become  paralysed  by  the 
"  heat,  and  remain  dilated  even  after  cold 
"  has  been  applied.  The  blood  is  thus  ex- 
"  posed  over  a  large  surface,  and  becomes 
"  rapidly  cooled."  For  instance,  the  blood 
of  an  animal  thus  treated  fell  from  between 
107-6°  and  111°  to  96'8°,  and  remained  at 
this  lower  temperature  for  several  days.  A 
passage  in  the  Zoonomia  *  seems  to  show 
that  Dr.  Darwin  was  acquainted  with  the 
above  important  fact,  discovered  by  Rosen- 
thal some  hundred  years  later. 

*  '  Zoonomia/  vol.  ii.  1706,  p.  570. 


110  LIFE   OF 

Dr.  Darwin  fully  recognised  the  truth  and 
importance  of  the  principle  of  inheritance  in 
disease.  He  remarks :  *  "As  many  families 
"  become  gradually  extinct  by  hereditary  dis- 
"  eases,  as  by  scrofula,  consumption,  epilepsy, 
"  mania,  it  is  often  hazardous  to  marry  an 
"  heiress,  as  she  is  not  unfrequently  the  last  of 
"  a  diseased  family."  His  grandson,  Francis 
Galton,  so  well  known  for  his  works  on  the 
subject  of  inheritance,  would  fully  appreciate 
this  remark.  On  the  other  hand,  when  a 
tendency  to  disease  is  confined  to  one  parent, 
the  children  often  escape.  "  I  now  know," 
as  he  writes  to  my  father,  January  5th,  1792, 
"  many  families  who  had  insanity  on  one  side, 
"  and  the  children,  now  old  people,  have  had 
"  no  symptom  of  it.  If  it  were  otherwise, 
"  there  would  not  be  a  family  in  the  king- 
''  dom  without  epileptic,  gouty,  or  insane 
"  people  in  it." 

In  'The  Temple  of  Nature'  (Notes,  p.  11), 
there  is  a  curious  instance  of  his  prophetic 
sagacity  with  respect  to  "  microscopic  ani- 
"  mals."     A  few  years  since  a  utilitarian  philo- 

*  'The   Temple  of  Nature/  1803,  notes,  p.  45;  published 
after  his  death. 


ERASMUS   DARWIX.  Ill 

eoplier  might  have  sneered  at  men  spending 
their  lives  in  the  examination  of  organisms 
far  too  minute  to  be  seen  by  the  naked  eye  ; 
and  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  have 
given  a  satisfactory  answer,  except  oji  general 
principles,  to  such  a  man.  But  we  now  know 
from  the  researches  of  various  naturalists  how 
all-important  a  part  these  organisms  play  in 
putrefaction,  fermentation,  infectious  diseases, 
&c. ;  and  as  a  consequence  of  such  researches, 
the  world  owes  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to 
Mr.  Lister  for  his  anti-septic  treatment  of 
wounds.  Therefore  the  following  sentence  of 
my  grandfather,  considering  how  little  was 
then  known  on  the  subject,  appears  to  me 
remarkable.  He  says :  "  I  hope  that  micro- 
"  scopic  researches  may  again  excite  the  at- 
"  tention  of  philosophers,  as  unforeseen  ad- 
"  vantages  may  probably  be  derived  from 
"  them  like  the  discovery  of  a  new  world." 

The  *  Phytologia/  was  published  in  1800. 
It  begins  with  a  discussion  on  the  nature  of 
leaf-buds  and  flower-buds  ;  and  the  view,  now 
universally  adopted,  that  a  plant  consists  of  '^  a 
**  system  of  individuals/'  and  not  merely  of  a 
multiplication   of  similar   organs,    originated 


112  LIFE   OF 

with  Darwin,  as  I  infer  from  Johannes 
Muller's  '  Elements  of  Physiology.'* 

Considering  how  recently  the  manner  in 
which  plants  modify  and  absorb  the  nutriment 
stored  up  in  their  roots,  tubers,  cotyledons,  &c. 
has  been  understood,  the  following  sentence 
(*  Phytologia,'  p.  77)  deserves  notice  :  "  The 
"  digestive  powers  of  the  young  vegetable, 
"  with  the  chemical  agents  of  heat  and  mois- 
"  ture,  convert  the  starch  or  mucilage  of  the 
"  root  or  seed  into  sugar  for  its  own  nourish- 
"  ment ;  .  .  .  and  thus  it  appears  pro- 
"  bable  that  sugar  is  the  principal  nourish- 
"  ment  of  both  animal  and  vegetable  beings." 

The  work  treats  largely  of  agriculture  and 
horticulture,  and  a  section  is  devoted  to  phos- 
phorus, which,  as  he  believes  (p.  207),  exists 
universally  in  vegetables,  a  question  "  which 
**  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  attended  to."  He 
then  refers  to  the  use  of  bones  as  a  manure,  but 
erred  in  supposing  that  shells  and  some  other 
substances  which  are  luminous  in  the  dark, 
abounded  with  phosphorus.  Sir  J.  Sinclair, 
President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  and 

*  '  Elements    of    Physiology,'    translated   by    Baly,    1842, 
p.  1421. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  113 

therefore  a  most  capable  jndge,  says  that, 
though  the  fertih'sing  properties  of  bone-dust 
had  been  previously  noticed  by  Hunter,  yet 
"  they  were  first  theoretically  explained  and 
"  brought  forward  with  authority  by  Dr.  Dar- 
"  win."  He  then  remarks,  and  of  the  truth 
of  his  remark  there  can  be  little  doubt,  '*  per- 
"  haps  no  (other)  modern  discovery  has  contri- 
"  buted  so  powerfully  to  improve  the  fertility 
"  and  to  increase  the  produce  of  the  soil."* 

The  following  sentences  are  interesting  as 
forecasting  the  progress  of  modern  thouglit. 
In  a  discussion  on  "  The  Happiness  of  Or- 
ganic Life"  (p.  556),  after  remarking  that 
animals  devour  vegetables,  he  says  :  "  The 
"  stronger  locomotive  animals  devour  the 
"  weaker  ones  without  mercy.  Such  is  the 
"  condition  of  organic  nature  !  whose  first  law 
"  might  be  expressed  in  the  words,  *  eat  or  be 
"  eaten,'  and  which  would  seem  to  be  one 
"  great  slaughter-house,  one  universal  scene 
"  of  rapacity  and  injustice."  He  proceeds: 
"  Where  shall  we  find  a  benevolent  idea  to 
"  console  us  amid  so  much  apparent  misery  ?" 

*  I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  Dowson's  *  Life  of  Erasmus  Darwin, 
for  the  reference  to  the  '  Life  and  Works  of  Sir  J.  Sinclair.' 


114  LIFE    OF 

He  then  argues  :  "  Beasts  of  prey  more  easily 
"  catch  and  conquer  the  aged  and  infirm,  and 
"  the    young    ones    are  defended    by    their 
"  parents.  ......  By  this  contrivance  more 

"  pleasurable  sensation   exists   in   the  world 
"    ....  old  organisations  are  transmigrated 

"  into   young    ones  ....  death    cannot    so 

"  properly  be  called  positive  evil  as  the  ter- 
"  mination  of  good."  There  is  much  more  of 
the  same  kind,  and  hardly  mor^  relevant. 
He  then  makes  a  great  leap  in  his  argument, 
and  concludes  that  all  the  strata  of  the  world 
"  are  monuments  of  the  past  felicity  of  organ- 
"  ised  nature  !  and  consequently  of  the  bene- 
^'  volence  of  the  Deity  !  " 

It  is  a  curious  proof  of  the  degree  to  which 
English  botanists  had  been  blinded  by  the 
splendour  of  the  fame  of  Linnseus,  that  Dr. 
Darwin  apparently  had  never  heard  of  Jussieu, 
for.  he  writes  (p.  564)  :  "  If  the  system  of  the 
"  great  Linnseus  can  ever  be  intrinsically  im- 
"  proved,  I  am  persuaded  that  the  plan  here 
"  proposed  of  using  the  situations,  propor- 
"  tioiis,  or  forms,  with  or  without  the  number 
"  of  the  sexual  organs,  as  criterions  of  the 
"  orders  and  classes,  must  lay  the  foundation  ; 


ERASMUS    DARWIN-.        '  115 

"  but  that  it  must  require  a  great  architect 
"  to  erect  the  superstructure."  He  therefore 
did  not  know  that  a  noble  superstructure  had 
ah^eady  been  raised. 

There  remains  only  one  other  book  to 
be  noticed :  '  A  Plan  for  the  Conduct  of 
Female  Education  in  Boarding  Schools,'  pub- 
lished in  1797.  This  is  a  short  treatise  which 
seems  never  to  have  received  much  attention 
in  England,  though  it  was  translated  into 
German.  It  is  strongly  characterised  by  plain 
common  sense,  with  little  theorising,  and  is 
throughout  benevolent.  He  insists  that 
punishment  should  be  avoided  as  much  as 
possible,  and  that  reproof  should  be  given 
with  kindness.  Emulation,  though  useful,  is 
dangerous,  from  being  liable  to  degenerate 
into  envy.  "  If  once  you  can  communicate 
"  to  children  a  love  of  credit  and  an  appre- 
"  hension  of  shame,  you  have  instilled  into 
"  them  a  principle,  which  will  constantly  act 
"  and  incline  them  to  do  right,  though  it  is 
"  not  the  true  source  whence  our  actions 
"  ought  to  spring,  which  should  be  from  our 
"  duty  to  others  and  ourselves."  He  urges 
that  sympathy  with  the  pains  and  pleasures 


116  LIFE   OF 

of  others  is  the  foundation  of  all  our  social 
virtues ;  and  that  this  can  best  be  inculcated 
by  example  and  the  expression  of  our  own 
sympathy.  "Compassion,  or  sympathy  with 
"  the  pains  of  others,  ought  also  to  extend  to 
"  the  brute  creation  ...  to  destroy  even 
"  insects  wantonly,  shows  an  unreflecting 
"  mind,  or  a  depraved  heart." 

He  considers  it  of  great  importance  to  girls 
that  they  should  learn  to  judge  of  character^, 
as  they  will  some  day  have  to  choose  a  hus- 
band ;  and  he  believes  that  reading  proper 
novels  teaches  them  something  of  life  and 
mankind,  and  helps  them  to  avoid  mistakes 
in  judging  of  character.  He  also  remarks 
more  than  once,  that  children  express  various 
emotions  in  their  countenances  much  more 
plainly  than  older  persons ;  and  he  is  con- 
vinced that  one  great  advantage  which  a  child 
derives  from  going  to  school  is  in  uncon- 
sciously acquiring  a  knowledge  of  physi- 
ognomy through  mixing  with  other  children. 
This  knowledge,  "  by  giving  a  promptitude 
"  of  understanding  the  present  approbation 
"  or  dislike,  and  the  good  or  bad  designs  of 
"  those  whom  we  converse  with,  becomes  of 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  117 

*'  hourly  use   in   almost   any   department   of 
"  life." 

He  was  much  in  advance  of  his  age  in  his 
ideas  as  to  sanitary  arrangements — such  as 
supplying  towns  with  pure  water,  having 
holes  made  into  crowded  sitting  and  bed- 
rooms for  the  constant  admission  of  fresh  air, 
and  not  allowing  chimneys  to  be  closed  during 
summer,  and  as  to  diet  and  exercise.  He 
speaks  of  "  skating  on  the  ice  in  v/inter, 
"  swimming  in  summer,  funambulation  or 
"  dancing  on  the  straight  rope,"  as  ''  not 
"  allowed  to  ladies  by  the  fashion  of  this  age 
"  and  country."  It  is  a  pity  he  does  not  tell 
us  when  and  where  it  was  the  fashion  of 
young  ladies  to  funambulate !  With  respect 
to  swimming,  he  disregarded  fashion,  and  had 
his  own  daughters  as  well  as  his  sons  taught 
to  swim  at  a  very  early  age,  so  that  they 
became,  it  is  said,  expert  swimmers  as  early 
as  four  years  old.  In  the  '  Phy tologia '  he 
shows  himself  still  more  clearly  a  great 
sanitary  reformer.  He  insists  that  the  sewage 
from  towns,  which  is  now  left  buried  or 
carried  into  the  rivers,  should  be  removed  for 
the   purpose   of  agriculture ;  *'  and  thus  the 

6 


118  LIFE   OF 

'  purity  and  healthiness  of  the  towns  may 

*  contribute  to  the  thriftiness  and  wealth  of 
'  the  surrounding  country."  "  There  should 
'  be  no  burial  places  in  churches  or  in  church- 
'  yards,  where   the   monuments  of  departed 

*  sinners    shoulder   God's    altar,    .    .    .   but 

*  proper  burial  grounds  should  be  consecrated 

*  out  of  towns."  Nearly  a  century  has 
elapsed  since  this  good  advice  was  given, 
and  it  has  as  yet  ODly  partially  been  carried 
out. 


One  of  the  subjects  which  interested  Dr. 
Darwin  most  throughout  his  whole  life,  and 
which  appears  little  in  his  published  works,  was 
mechanical  invention.  This  is  shown  in  his 
letters  to  Josiah  Wedgwood,  Edge  worth,  and 
others,  and  in  a  huge  common-place  book  full 
of  sketches  and  suggestions  about  machines. 
He  seems,  however,  rarely  to  have  completed 
anything,  with  the  exception  of  a  horizontal 
windmill  for  grinding  flints,  which  he  de- 
signed for  Wedgwood,  and  which  answered 
its  purpose.  There  are  schemes  and  sketches 
for  an  improved  lamp,  like  our  present 
moderators ;  candlesticks  with  telescope  stands 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  119 

SO  as  to  be  raised  at  pleasure  to  any  required 
height ;  a  manifold  writer  ;  a  knitting  loom  for 
stockings ;  a  weighing  machine  ;  a  surveying 
machine;  a  flying  bird,  with  an  ingenious 
escapement  for  the  movement  of  the  wings, 
and  he  suggests  gunpowder  or  compressed  air 
as  the  motive  power.  He  also  gives  a  plan  of 
a  canal  lock,  on  the  principle  of  the  boat  being 
floated  into  a  large  box,  the  door  of  which  is 
then  closed,  and  the  box  afterwards  raised  or 
lowered.  This  principle  has  since  been  acted 
on  under  certain  circumstances,  but  by  an 
improved  method.  A  rotatory  pump  was 
also  one  of  his  schemes,  and  this,  under  a 
modified  form,  is  extensively  used  for  blowing 
air  into  smelting  cupolas,  and  for  pumping 
water  in  certain  cases.  He  saw  clearly,  as  he 
explains  in  1756  in  a  letter  to  Reimarus,  that 
it  would  be  a  great  advantage  if  the  spokes  of 
carriage  wheels  acted  as  springs ;  and  Sir  J. 
Whitworth  has  recently  had  a  carriage  con- 
structed with  such  wheels^  which  is  remark- 
ably smooth. 

Another  invention  was  a  small  carriage  of 
peculiar  construction,  intended  to  give  tlie 
best  effect  to  the  power  of  the  horse,  combined 


120  LIFE   OF 

witb  tlie  greatest  ease  in  turning.  "  It  was 
"  a  platform/'  says  Miss  Seward,  "  with  a 
"  seat  fixed  upon  a  very  liigli  pair  of  wheels, 
"  and  supported  in  the  front  upon  the  back 
"  of  the  horse,  by  means  of  a  kind  of  pro- 
"  boscis,  which,  forming  an  arch,  reached  over 
"  the  hind  quarters  of  the  horse  ;  and  passed 
"  through  a  ring,  placed  on  an  upright  piece 
"  of  iron,  which  worked  in  a  socket,  fixed  in 
"  the  saddle."*  But  however  correct  this 
carriage  may  have  been  in  principle,  Darwin 
had  the  misfortune,  in  the  year  1768,  to  be 
upset  in  it,  when  he  broke  his  knee-cap  and 
ever  afterwards  limped  a  little. 

A  speaking  machine  was  a  favourite  idea, 
and  for  this  end  he  invented  a  phonetic  alpha- 
bet. His  machine,  or  "  head,  pronounced  the 
"/>,  5,  m,  and  the  vowel  a,  with  so  great 
"  nicety  as  to  deceive  all  who  heard  it  unseen, 
"  when  it  pronounced  the  words  mamay  papa, 
"  map^  and  pam ;  and   it  had  a  most  plain- 

*  Dr.  Krause  informs  me  "  that  the  Moravian  engineer,  Theodo 
"  Tomatschek,  has  lately  constructed  a  very  similar  carriage, 
"  which  I  saw  at  the  Vienna  International  Exhibition ;  and  the 
"  Americans  have  also  reduced  the  Darwinian  idea  to  practice, 
"  and  given  the  new  vehicle  the  paradoxical  name  *  Equibus.' " 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  121 

"  tive  tone,  when  the  lips  were  gradually 
"  closed."*  Edgeworth  also  bears  witness  to 
the  capacity  of  this  speaking  head.  Matthew 
Boulton  entered  into  the  following  agreement, 
which,  from  the  witnesses  to  it,  was  evidently 
made  at  one  of  the  meetings  of  the  famous 
Lunar  Club  ;  but  whether  in  joke  or  earnest, 
it  is  diflScult  to  conjecture  : 

I  promise  to  pay  to  Dr.  Darwin  of  Lichfield 
one  thousand  pounds  upon  his  delivering  to  me 
(within  2  years  from  date  hereof)  an  Instrument 
called  an  organ  that  is  capable  of  pronouncing  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and  Ten  Commandments 
in  the  Vulgar  Tongue,  and  his  ceding  to  me,  and  me 
only,  the  property  of  the  said  invention  with  all  the 
advantages  thereunto  appertaining. 

M.  Boulton 
Soho  Sep.  3rd  1877 
Witness,  James  Keir 
Witness,  W.  Small 

In  the  last  century  a  speaking  tube  was  an 
unknown  invention   in  country  districts,  and 


*  *  Temple  of  Nature,'  notes,  p.  120 ;  p.  107  on  the  phonetic 
alphabet.     See  also  *  Memoirs  of  Edgeworth,  vol.  ii.  p.  178, 


122  LIFE   OF 

Dr.  Darwin  had  one  for  his  study,  which 
opened  near  the  back  of  the  kitchen  fire- 
place. A  countryman  had  brought  a  letter 
and  sat  waiting  for  an  answer  by  this  fire, 
which  had  become  very  low,  when  suddenly 
he  heard  a  sepulchral  voice,  saying,  as  if 
from  the  depths  of  the  expiring  fire,  "  I  want 
"  some  coals."  The  man  instantly  fled  from 
the  house,  for  my  grandfather  had  the  repu- 
tation amongst  the  country  folk  of  being  a 
sort  of  magician. 

At  a  time  (1783)  when  very  few  artesian 
wells  had  been  made  in  this  country.  Dr. 
Darwin  made  one,  though  on  a  small  scale; 
and  in  the  garden- wall  to  his  house  in  Full 
Street^  Derby,  there  still  exists  an  iron  plate 
with  the  following  inscription  : 

TEREEBELLO  EDUXIT  AQUAM 
ANNO  ]\iDCCLXXXIII. 
ERASMUS  DARWIN. 
LABITCJR  ET  LABETUE. 

This  case  would  not  have  been  worth  men- 
tioning had  he  not  shown  in  his  paper,*  in 


*  i 


Philosopliical  Transact.'  1785,  part  i.  p.  1. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  123 

which  this  well  is  described,  that  he  recog- 
nised the  true  principle  of  artesian  wells. 
He  remarks  that  "  some  of  the  more  interior 
"  strata  of  the  earth  are  exposed  naked  on 
"  the  tops  of  mountains  ;  and  that  in  general, 
"those  strata  which  lie  uppermost,  or  nearest 
"  to  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  are  the 
"  lowest  in  the  contiguous  plains."  He  then 
adds  that  the  waters  "  sliding  between  two 
"  of  the  strata  above  described,  descend  till 
"  they  find  or  make  for  themselves  an  outlet, 
"  and  will  in  consequence  rise  to  a  level 
"  with  the  parts  of  the  mountain  where  they 
"  originated." 

In  Oct.  1771  he  wrote  several  letters  to 
Wedgwood  about  a  scheme  of  making,  with 
his  own  cajDital,  a  canal  of  very  small  dimen- 
sions from  the  Grand  Trunk  to  Lichfield,  for 
boats  drawing  only  a  foot  of  water,  to  be 
dragged  by  a  man,  and  carrying  only  four  or 
five  tons  burthen.  Such  a  canal  would  have 
borne  the  same  relation  to  ordinary  canals,  as 
some  very  narrow  railways,  which  have  been 
found  to  answer  well  in  Wales,  bear  to  ordinary 
railways.     He  seems  to   have  been   greatly 


124  LIFE    OP 

interested  in   this   project,    which,    however, 
never  came  to  anything. 

The  weather,  and  the  course  of  the  winds 
throughout  the  world,  was  another  subject  on 
which  he  was  continually  searching  for  infor- 
mation and  speculating.  I  have  heard  my 
father  say,  that  in  order  to  notice  every 
change  of  the  wind  he  connected  a  wind-vane 
on  the  top  of  his  house  with  a  dial  on  the 
ceiling  of  his  study. 

There  remains  only  to  be  said  that  Erasmus 
Darwin  died  at  Breadsall  Priory,  near  Derby, 
on  Sunday  morning,  April  18th,  1802,  in  his 
seventy-first  year.  A  week  previously  he  had 
been  ill  for  a  few  days,  but  had  recovered. 
On  the  17th,  whilst  walking  in  his  garden 
with  a  lady,  he  told  her  that  he  did  not  expect 
to  live  long.  At  night  he  was  as  cheerful  as 
usual.  On  the  following  morning,  the  18th, 
he  rose  at  six  o'clock  and  wrote  a  long 
letter  to  Mr.  Edgeworth*  which  he  did  not 
live  to  finish,  and  which  contains  the  follow- 
ing description  of  the  Priory,  where  he  had 

*  R.  L.  Edgewortli's  *  Memoirs,'  2ud  ed.,  vol.  ii.  p.  242. 


ERASMUS  DARWIN. 


125 


Bbeadsall  Pkiort,  where  Erasmus  DARmu  died. 


126  LIFE    OF 

been  living  for  about  two  years  :  "  We  have 
"  a  pleasant  house,  a  good  garden,  ponds  full 
"  of  fish,  and  a  pleasing  valley  somewhat  like 
"  Shenstone's — deep,  umbrageous,  and  with  a 
"  talkative  stream  running  down  it.  Our 
"  house  is  near  the  top  of  the  valley,  well 
"  screened  by  hills  from  the  east  and  north, 
"  and  open  to  the  south,  where,  at  four  miles 
"  distance,  we  see  Derby  tower."  At  about 
seven  o'clock  he  was  seized  with  a  violent 
shivering  fit,  and  went  into  the  kitchen  to 
warm  himself;  he  returned  to  his  study,  lay 
on  the  sofa,  became  faint  and  cold,  and  was 
moved  into  an  arm-chair,  where  without  pain 
or  emotion  of  any  kind  he  expired  a  little 
before  nine  o'clock. 

A  few  years  before  he  had  written  to  Edge- 
worth  :  ''  When  I  think  of  dying,  it  is  always 
without  pain  or  fear ;"  but  he  had  often  ex- 
pressed a  strong  hope  that  his  end  might  be 
painless,  and  so  it  j^roved.  His  medical  attend- 
ants differed  about  the  cause  of  his  death,  but 
my  father  did  not  doubt  that  it  was  an  affec- 
tion of  the  heart.  Many  years  afterwards  his 
widow  showed  me  the  sofa  and  chair,  still 
preserved  in  the  same  place,  where  he  had  lain 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  127 

and   expired.     He  was   buried   in   Breadsall 
Church. 

ERASMUS  DARWIN,  M.D.,  F.R.S. 

Born  at  Elston,  near  Newark,  12th  Dec,  1731. 

Died  at  the  Priory,  near  Derby,  10th  April,  1802. 

Of  the  rare  union  of  Talents 

which  so  eminently  distinguished  him  ' 

as  a  Physician,  a  Poet  and  PhilosoiDher 

His  writings  remain 

a  public  and  unfading  testimony. 

His  Widow 

has  erected  this  monument 

in  memory  of 

the  zealous  benevolence  of  his  disposition,     . 

the  active  humanity  of  his  conduct, 

and  the  many  private  virtues 

which  adorned  his  chai-acter. 


TTIE  SCIENTIFIC  AVORKS 


or 


EEASMUS    DAEWIN. 


By  ERNST   KEAUSE. 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GERMAN  BY  W.  S.  DALLAS,  F.L.S. 


On  the  second  page  of  the  later  editions  of 
Darwin's  ^  Origin  of  Species '  *  we  find  the 
following  brief  observation  : — "  It  is  curious 
how  largely  my  grandfather,  Dr.  Erasmus 
Darwin,  anticipated  the  views  and  erroneous 
grounds  of  opinion  of  Lamarck  in  his  '  Zoo- 
nomia'  (voh  i.  pp.  500-510),  published  in 
1794."  Being  quite  aware  of  the  reticence 
and  modesty  with  which  tlie  author  expresses 
himself,  especially  in  speaking  pro  domo,  I 
thought  immediately  that  here  we  ought  to 
read  between  the  lines,  aud  that  this  ancestor 
of  his  must  certainly  deserve  considerable 
credit  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the 
Darwinian  theory.  As  no  light  was  to  be 
obtained  upon  this  subject  from  German 
literature  I  procured  the  works  of  Erasmus 
Darwin,  and  have  found  singular  pleasure  in 
their  study. 

I  was  speedily  convinced  that   this   man, 

*  Sixth  edition,  p.  xiv.  note 


132  LIFE    OF 

equally  eminent  as  philanthropist,  physician, 
naturalist,  philosopher,  and  poet,  is  far  less 
known  and  valued  by  posterity  than  he 
deserves,  in  comparison  with  other  persons 
who  occupy  a  similar  rank.  It  is  true  that 
what  is  perhaps  the  most  important  of  his 
many-sided  endowments,  namely  his  broad 
view  of  the  philosophy  of  nature,  was  not 
intelligible  to  his  contemporaries ;  it  is  only 
now,  after  the  lapse  of  a  hundred  years,  that 
by  the  labours  of  one  of  his  descendants  we 
are  in  a  position  to  estimate  at  its  true  value 
the  wonderful  perceptivity^  amounting  almost 
to  divination,  that  he  displayed  in  the  domain 
of  biology.  For  in  him  we  find  the  same  in- 
defatigable spirit  of  research,  and  almost  the 
same  biological  tendency,  as  in  his  grandson ; 
and  we  might,  not  without  justice,  assert  that 
the  latter  has  succeeded  to  an  intellectual 
inheritance,  and  carried  out  a  programme 
sketched  forth  and  left  behind  by  his  grand- 
father. 

Almost  every  single  work  of  the  younger 
Darwin  may  be  paralleled  by  at  least  a 
chapter  in  the  works  of  his  ancestor;  the 
mystery   of    heredity,    adaptation,   the    pro 


EUASMUS   DARWIN.  13 


o 


tective  arrangements  of  animals  and  plants, 
sexual  selection,  insectivorous  plants,  and 
the  analysis  of  the  emotions  and  sociological 
impulses ;  nay,  even  the  studies  on  infants  are 
to  be  found  already  discussed  in  the  writings 
of  the  elder  Darwin.  But  at  the  same  time 
we  remark  a  material  difference  in  their  inter- 
pretation of  nature.  The  elder  Darwin  was  a 
Lamarckian,  or,  more  properly,  Jean  Lamarck 
was  a  Darwinian  of  the  older  school,  for 
he  has  only  carried  out  further  the  ideas 
of  Erasmus  Darwin,  although  with  great 
acumen ;  and  it  is  to  Darwin  therefore  that 
the  credit  is  due  of  having  first  established  a 
complete  system  of  the  theory  of  evolution. 
The  evidence  of  this  I  shall  adduce  hereafter. 
The  unusual  circumstance  that  a  grand- 
father should  be  the  intellectual  j^recursor  of 
his  grandson  in  questions  which  now-a-days 
more  than  any  others  move  the  minds  of  men, 
must  of  itself  suffice  to  excite  the  liveliest 
interest.  But  at  the  same  time  it  must  be 
pointed  out  that  in  this  fact  we  have  not 
the  smallest  ground  for  depreciating  the 
labours  of  the  man  who  has  shed  a  new 
lustre  upon  the  name  of  his  grandfather.     It 


134  LIFE   OP 

is  one  thing  to  establish  hypotheses  and 
theories  out  of  the  fulness  of  one's  fancy, 
even  when  supported  by  a  very  considerable 
knowledge  of  nature,  and  another  to  demon- 
strate them  by  an  enormous  number  of  facts, 
and  carry  them  to  such  a  degree  of  probability 
as  to  satisfy  those  most  capable  of  judging. 
Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin  could  not  satisfy  his 
contemporaries  with  his  physio-philosophical 
ideas ;  he  was  a  century  ahead  of  them,  and 
was  in  consequence  obliged  to  put  up  with 
seeing  people  shrug  their  shoulders  when 
they  spoke  of  his  wild  and  eccentric  fancies, 
and  the  expression  "  Darwinising  "  (as  em- 
ployed for  example  by  the  poet  Coleridge 
when  writing  on  Stillingfleet)  was  accepted 
in  England  nearly  as  the  antithesis  of  sober 
biological  investigation.* 

The  many-sidedness  of  his  endowments  also 
injured  his  fame  in  another  direction.  The 
physicians  reproached  him  with  being  a 
philosopher;  and  the  philosophers  thought 
themselves  justified  in  complaining  that  he 
was  of  far  too  poetical  and  fanciful  a  con- 
stitution ;  the  poets  and  literati  on  the  other 

*  See  *  Athenffium,'  March,  1875,  p.  423. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  135 

hand  objected  to  his  position  as  a  phj^sician 
and  his  scientific  tendencies ;  and  thus  partiaHty 
and  prejudice  prevented  his  judges  from  a 
full  and  complete  recognition  of  the  value  of 
the  man.  His  life  and  labours  have  frequently 
been  described,  but  always  by  either  litterateurs 
or  medical  men,  and  hence  the  picture  pro- 
duced has  always  had  a  partizan  colouring. 

Nevertheless  it  is  gratifying  to  find  that 
each  of  his  biographers  has  expressed  the 
highest  appreciation  of  precisely  that  side  of 
the  doctor's  activity  of  which  he  was  most 
capable  of  judging.  The  literati  formerly  ex- 
tolled his  poetical  merits.  Eighteen  years 
ago  an  English  physician  praised  his  medical 
contributions;  and  it  has  remained  for  the 
present  writer  to  add  to  these  the  hitherto 
neglected  tribute  of  recognition*  which  is  due 
to  him  on  the  part  of  natural  history  and 
physio-philosophy. 

It  is  characteristic  of  this  distinguished 
man  that  he  never  exhibited  those  fluctuating 
opinions  with  respect  to  the  evolution  of 
organic  beings  which  are  evident  in  the 
works  of  Linnaeus  and  Buffon. 

*  See  *  Kosmos,'  February,  1879,  p.  393. 


136  LIFE    OF 

When  Gothe,  in  the  year  1786,  penetrated 
by  the  thought  that  a  common  organization 
must  bind  together  the  higher  animals,  de- 
monstrated the  existence  of  the  intermaxillary 
bone  in  man,  the  supposed  absence  of  which 
had  been  regarded  as  a  character  clearly 
separating  man  from  animals,  no  anatomist 
would  agree  with  him ;  his  idea  of  vegetable 
metamorphosis,  which  he  brought  forth  about 
the  same  time,  was  strenuously  opposed  by  the 
.botanists;  and  his  discovery  in  1790  of  the 
vertebral  nature  of  the  skull  has  only  met 
with  justice  in  our  own  days.  Exactly  similar 
was  the  fate  of  Dr.  Darwin,  who,  as  we  shall 
show,  was  far  in  advance  of  his  age.  Exceed- 
ingly successful  in  grasping  and  combining 
separated  things,  G-othe  absolutely  detested 
the  analytical  activity  of  the  exact  investigator, 
although  he  availed  himself  of  it,  and  indeed 
exercised  it  himself  in  procuring  the  materials 
for  his  new  conception  of  the  world.  Dr. 
Darwin  had  no  such  aversion  to  the  analytical 
activity  of  the  philosophers  and  specialists, 
and  hence  he  carried  his  construction  further 
than  any  of  his  predecessors  and  contem- 
poraries.    The  similarity  of  the  conceptions 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  137 

of  the  universe  of  the  two  poets  is  in  many 
respects  as  great  as  their  need  to  give  utter- 
ance to  them  in  verse ;  but  this  agreement 
may  be  easily  explained  if  we  consider  that 
both  of  them  started  from  the  investigations 
of  the  same  precursors,  Buffon  and  Linnaeus. 

The  first  great  work  of  Darwin,  the  didactic 
poem  '  The  Botanic  G-arden,'  is  divided  into 
two  parts,  which  are  not  very  closely  con- 
nected ;  for  this  reason  I  shall  hereafter  cite  the 
second  part,  '  The  Loves  of  the  Plants,'  which 
appeared  before  the  first,  under  the  above 
special  title  *  The  first  part,  '  The  Economy 
of  Yegetation,'  certainly  answers  to  both  the 
principal  and  special  titles  only  in  its  last 
canto,  the  first  three  cantos  describing  the 
action  of  the  forces  of  nature. in  general,  and 
specially  the  formation  of  the  world.  Yarious 
critics  have  expressed  the  opinion  that  Dr. 
Darwin's  didactic  poem  was  an  imitation  of 
one  which  appeared  anonymously  in  London 
in  1735  under  the  title  of  *  Universal  Beauty,' 
the  author  of  which  afterwards  turned  out  to 

*  The  following  citations  refer  throughout  to  the  second  edi- 
tions, both  of  the  first  part  (*The  Economy  of  Vegetation,' 
London,  Johnson,  1791)  and  of  the  second  ('  The  Loves  of  the 
Plants,'  London,  Nichols,  1790). 


138  LIFE   OF 

be  the  poet  Henry  Brooke.  OtTaers  have  re- 
presented Sir  Richard  Blackmore's  poem,  *  The 
Creation,'  which  appeared  in  1712,  as  the 
model.*  Neither  statement  has  the  slightest 
foundation.  Henry  Brooke's  '  Universal 
Beauty '  is  a  "  Physico-theology "  in  verse, 
which,  although  decidedly  more  sonorous  and 
poetical  than  the  offspring  of  the  similarly 
employed  muse  of  his  German  namesake 
(Heinrich  Brookes),  is  merely  devoted  to  a 
representation  of  the  glories  of  creation  of 
the  same  character  as  the  physico-theologies  of 
that  period.  Blackmore's  *  Creation,'  which, 
from  its  being  divided  into  seven  books,  people 
have  been  led  to  regard  as  belonging  to  the 
Diluvianistic  literature,  treats  of  the  process  of 
creation  ouly  by  the  way ;  and  is  essentially  a 
purely  polemico-rhetorical  pliilippic  against  the 
atheists,  from  Democritus  and  Epicurus  down 
to  Descartes  and  Spinoza,  in  which  we  find  so 
little  sound  judgment  and  insight  that  tlie 
author  can  by  no  means  umke  up  his  mind 

*  The  suggestion  that  Dr.  Darwin  may  have  made  use  of 
Brooke's  *  Universal  Beauty '  as  his  pattern,  seems  to  have  first 
appeared  in  a  critical  article  in  the  '  Edinburgh  Eeview '  (April, 
1803, 4th  ed.  p.  491),  but  has  since  passed,  as  a  demonstrated  fact, 
into  later  biographical  works,  e.g.,  the  '  Biographic  Universelle.' 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  139 

whether  he  shall  decide  in  favour  of  Aristotle 
and  Ptolemy,  or  of  Copernicus,  Kepler,  and 
Newton.  The  Grerman  critics  who  regard 
Blackmore's  poem  as  the  model  of  Darwin's 
'  Botanic  Garden '  must  certainly  have 
neglected  to  read  at  least  one  of  these 
didactic  poems.  Blackmore's  work  might 
much  rather  be  regarded  as  the  pattern  for 
Polignac's '  Anti  Lucretium,'  although  it  is  far 
exceeded  by  the  latter  in  dialectic  acuteness. 

In  the  introduction  and  apology  to  the 
*  Botanic  Grarden '  the  author  says :  *'  The 
"  general  design  of  the  following  sheets  is  to 
"  inlist  Imagination  under  the  banner  of 
"  Science ;  and  to  lead  her  votaries  from  the 
"  looser  analogies  which  dress  out  the  imagery 
"  of  poetry _,  to  the  stricter  ones,  which  form 
"  the  ratiocination  of  philosophy.  ...  It 
"  may  be  proper  here  to  apologize  for  many 
*'  of  the  subsequent  conjectures  on  some 
*'  articles  of  natural  philosophy,  as  not  being 
*'  supported  by  accurate  investigation  or  con- 
"  elusive  experiments.  Extravagant  theories, 
"  however,  in  those  parts  of  philosophy,  where 
"  our  knowledge  is  yet  imperfect,  are  not 
**  without  their  use ;  as  they  encourage  the 


140  LIFE    OF 

**  execution  of  laborious  experiments,  or  the 
"  investigation  of  ingenious  deductions,  to 
"  confirm  or  refute  them." 

The  plan  of  the  poem  was  to  a  certain 
extent  prescribed  by  those  initial  verses  of 
Miss  Seward's,  which  the  author  placed  at  the 
commencement  of  his  work,  either  out  of 
gallantry  or  in  acknowledgment  of  their 
having  given  the  first  inducement  to  the 
production  of  the  poem.  Starting  from  the 
fundamental  idea  that  the  mythology  of  the 
ancients  glorified  the  forces  and  government 
of  nature  in  the  persons  of  their  deities, 
he  has  introduced  the  personified  forces  of 
nature  which  prevail  in  fire,  air,  water,  and 
earth;  and  then  represents  the  goddess  as 
addressing  herself  to  the  different  groups  of 
elementary  spirits,  in  a  figurative  discourse, 
permeated  throughout  with  mythological  ele- 
ments, and  describing  the  part  taken  by  each 
in  the  formation  and  life  of  the  world.  Thus 
the  first  canto  is  addressed  to  the  "  nymphs  of 
primeval  fire,"  and  he  accordingly  describes 
the  production  of  the  universe  from  this 
source,  at  the  same  time  bringing  together 
many  of  the  ordinary  phenomenal  forms  of 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  141 

fire,  heat,  and  light.  Matters  which  can  only 
be  slightly  touched  upon  in  the  verses  are 
further  elaborated,  partly  in  short  footnotes 
and  partly  in  more  detailed  memoirs  (addi- 
tional notes)  which  are  relegated  to  the  end 
of  the  volume.  It  is  to  these  notes  that  our 
attention  must  principally  be  directed. 

We  are  especially  interested  in  a  note  to 
verse  101  of  the  first  canto,  in  which  the 
author  unfolds  the  idea  and  the  first  scheme 
of  the  theory  of  evolution.  He  says:  **From 
"  having  observed  the  gradual  evolution  of  the 
"  young  animal  or  plant  from  its  egg  or  seed  ; 
"  and  afterwards  its  successive  advances  to  its 
"  more  perfect  state,  or  maturity;  philosophers 
"  of  all  ages  seem  to  have  imagined  that  the 
"  great  world  itself  had  likewise  its  infancy  and 
"  its  gradual  progress  to  maturity  ;  this  seems 
"  to  have  given  origin  to  the  very  antient 
**  and  sublime  allegory  of  Eros,  or  Divine  love, 
"  producing  the  world  from  the  egg  of  Night, 
"as  it  floated  in  chaos."  To  the  second 
particularly  important  part  of  this  note  we 
shall  have  to  refer  hereafter. 

For  the  student  of  the  history  of  civilization 
who  looks  back  from  a  Darwinistic  standpoint, 

7 


142  LIFE   OP 

a  fancy  worked  out  in  this  canto  as  to  the 
discovery  and  subjugation  of  fire,  which 
Darwin  denominates  *'the  first  art,"  will  be 
particularly  interesting. 

"  Nymphs !  your  soft  smiles  Tmcultur'd  man  subdned. 
And  charm'd  the  Savage  from  his  native  wood ; 
You,  while  amaz'd  his  hurrying  Hords  retire 
From  the  fell  havoc  of  devouring  Fire, 
Taught,  the  first  Art !  with  piny  rods  to  raise 
By  quick  attrition  the  domestic  blaze,  ' 

Fan  with  soft  breath,  with  kindling  leaves  provide, 
And  list  the  dread  Destroyer  on  his  side. 
So,  with  bright  wreath  of  serpent-tresses  crown'd. 
Severe  in  beauty,  young  Medusa  frown'd ; 
Erewhile  subdued,  round  Wisdom's  ^gis  rolFd, 
Hiss'd  the  dread  snakes,  and  flam'd  in  burnish'd  gold ; 
Flash'd  on  her  brandish'd  arm  the  immortal  shield. 
And  Terror  lighten'd  o'er  the  dazzled  field.'*  * 

We  then  have  the  well-known  verses  on 
the  power  of  steam,  vv.  289-296. 

"  Soon  shall  thy  arm,  Unconquer'd  Steam,  afar 
Drag  the  slow  barge,  or  drive  the  rapid  car ; 
Or  on  wide-waving  wings  expanded  bear 
The  flying-chariot  through  the  fields  of  air. 

Fair  crews,  triumphant,  leaning  from  above. 

Shall  wave  their  flutt'ring  kerchiefs  as  they  move ; 
Or  warrior-bands  alarm  the  gaping  crowd. 
And  armies  shrink  beneath  the  shadowy  cloud. 

*  *  Economy  of  Vegetation,'  canto  i.  vv.  209-222, 


ERASMTTS   DARWIN.  143 

So  mighty  Hercules  o*er  many  a  clime 
Waved  his  vast  mace  in  Virtue's  cause  sublime, 
Umneasured  strength  with  early  art  combined, 
Awed,  served,  protected,  and  amazed  mankind," 

The  second  canto  is  addressed  to  the  gnomes 
or  earth-spirits,  and  describes  the  gradual 
development  of  the  earth,  which,  with  the  other 
planets,  the  author  believes  to  have  been  cast 
forth  from  a  volcano  in  the  sun.  Bj  stronger 
friction  or  adhesion  to  one  wall  of  this  volcano 
the  earth  received  its  axial  revolution  and 
spheroidal  form ;  by  refrigeration  a  nucleus 
was  formed,  upon  which  the  waters  were 
precipitated  as  a  primeval  ocean  free  from 
salt,  while  the  lighter  gases  formed  the  atmo- 
sphere.    "  It  is  probable,"  he  adds,  "  that  all 

"the  calcareous  earth  in  the  world 

"  was  formed  originally  by  animal  and  vege- 
"  table  bodies  from  the  mass  of  water."*  By 
the  lixiviation  of  the  rocks  the  seas  became 
salt.     Finally  the  formation  of  the  vegetable 

*  It  was  a  favourite  notion  of  Dr.  Darwin's  that  all  the  lime 
of  the  earth  originated  from  living  creatures,  corals,  shells,  and 
other  animals,  and  therefore  must  have  taken  part  in  the  plea- 
sures and  pains  of  hfe.  The  limestone  mountains  of  England 
appeared  to  him  as  "  mighty  monuments  of  past  delight."  It 
was  probably  in  consequence  of  this  idea,  and  in  allusion  to  his 
family  arms,  consisting  of  three  scallop  shells,  that  he  altered 
his  motto  to  "  E  conchis  cmnia." 


144  LIFE   OF 

world  is  indicated,  to  which  may  be  added 
here  from  the  second  part  (pp.  36  and  44) 
that  Darwin  regarded  lichens  as  the  oldest 
terrestrfal  plants,  and,  like  Hackel  in  more 
recent  times,  he  referred  the  fungi  to  a 
kingdom  which,  like  "  a  narrow  isthmus," 
united  plants  and  animals. 

In  the  third  canto,  addressed  to  the  water- 
nymphs,  the  circulation  and  action  of  water 
upon  the  earth  is  described.  The  formation 
of  clouds,  the  sea  and  its  life,  springs,  rivers, 
geysers,  glaciers,  coral  structures,  &c.  In  this 
connection  the  fossil  marine  animals  also  come 
under  discussion;  and  after  mentioning  the 
singular  circumstance  that  most  fossil  marine 
animals  as,  for  example,  the  ammonites,  are 
no  longer  foimd  living,  whilst  the  living 
animals  do  not  occur  in  the  fossil  state,  the 
author  raises  the  questions,   "  Were  all   the 

*  ammonia    destroyed  when   the   continents 

*  were  raised  ?     Or  do  some  genera  of  animals 

*  perish  by  the  increasing  power  of  their 
'  enemies  ?  Or  do  they  still  reside  at  in- 
'  accessible  depths  in  the  sea  ?  Or  do  some 
'  animals  change  their  forms  gradually  and 
'  become  new  genera  ?"* 

*  '  The  Economy  of  Vegetation/  p.  120. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  145 

The  question  of  the  transformation  of  species 
and  their  development  into  higher  forms  was 
a  favourite  one  with  the  elder  Darwin,  and 
one  to  which  he  has  given  expression  in  all 
his  works,  at  least  in  one  place,  and  usually 
in  very  similar  terms.  Already,  in  the  eighth 
page  of  the  poem  now  under  consideration,  he 
brings  it  forward,  and  after  having  spoken 
of  the  stratified  formation  of  the  earth  in  a 
note,  the  commencement  of  which  has  already 
been  given,  he  says :  "  There  are  likewise 
"  some  apparently  useless  or  incomplete 
''  appendages  to  plants  and  animals  which 
"  seem  to  shew  they  have  gradually  under- 
"  gone  changes  from  their  original  state  ;  such 
"  as  the  stamens  without  anthers,  and  styles 
"  without  stigmas  of  several  plants,  as  men- 
"  tioned  in  the  note  on  Curcuma,  vol.  ii.  of 
"  this  work.  Such  as  the  halteres,  or  rudi- 
"  ments  of  wings  of  some  two-winged  insects, 
"  and  the  paps  of  male  animals  ;  thus  swine 
"  have  four  toes,  but  two  of  them  are  im- 
"  perfectly  formed,  and  not  long  enough  for 
"  use.''  We  here  break  off  in  order  to  append 
the   above-mentioned  note  on  the  Turmeric 


146  LIFE    OF 

plant,  wliicli  gives  tlie  theory  of  rudimentary 
organs  still  more  completely.  "  There  is  a 
''  curious  circumstance,"  he  says,  "  belonging 
"  to  the  class  of  insects  which  have  two  wings, 
''  or  diptera,  analogous  to  the  rudiments  of 
"  stamens  above  described ;  viz.  two  little 
"  knobs  are  found  placed  each  on  a  stalk  or 
"  peduncle,  generally  under  a  little  arched 
"  scale;  which  appear  to  be  rudiments  of 
"  hinder  wings ;  and  are  called  by  Linneus 
"  halteres,  or  poisers,  a  term  of  his  introduc- 
"  tion.  Other  animals  have  marks  of  having 
"  in  a  long  process  of  time  undergone  changes 
**  in  some  parts  of  their  bodies,  which  may 
"  have  been  effected  to  accommodate  them  to 
"  new  ways  of  procuring  their  food.  The 
"  existence  of  teats  on  the  breasts  of  male 
"  animals,  and  which  are  generally  replete 
"  with  a  thin  kind  of  milk  at  their  nativity,  is 
"  a  wonderful  instance  of  this  kind.  Perhaps 
"  all  the  productions  of  nature  are  in  their 
"  progress  to  greater  perfection  ? — an  idea 
"  countenanced  by  the  modern  discoveries 
"  and  deductions  concerning  the  progressive 
"  formation  of  the  solid  parts    of  the    ter- 


ERASMUS   DARWIN-.  ]47 

"  raqiieous  globe,  and  consonant  to  the  dignity 
"  of  the  Creator  of  all  things."* 

Buffon  before  him  had  regarded  the  rudi- 
mentary organs  somewhat  in  the  same  way, 
but  he  had  by  no  means  perceived  with  equal 
clearness  their  part  as  evidence  in  favour 
of  the  theory  of  descent.  The  pig,  says 
Buffon,  rather  mysteriously, "  does  not  appear 
^*  to  have  been  formed  upon  an  original, 
"  special  and  perfect  plan,  since  it  is  a  com- 
"  pound  of  other  animals ;  it  has  evidently 
"  useless  parts,  or  rather  parts  of  which  it 
"  cannot  make  any  use, — toes,  all  the  bones 
"  of  which  are  perfectly  formed,  and  which 
"  nevertheless  are  of  no  service  to  it.  Nature 
"  is  consequently  far  from  subjecting  herself 
"  to  final  causes  in  the  formation  of  her 
"  creatures.  Why  should  she  not  sometimes 
"  add  superfluous  parts,  when  she  so  often 
"  seems  to  omit  essential  ones  ?  .  .  .  .  Why 
"  do  we  regard  it  as  necessary  that  in  each 
*'  individual  every  part  should  be  useful  to 
"  the  others  and  necessary  to  the  whole  ? 
"  Does  it  not  suffice  for  their  co-existence  that 
"  they  do  not  injure  one  another,  that  they 

*  *  Loves  of  the  Plants/  pp.  7,  8. 


148  LIFE   OF 

"  can  grow  without  hindrance,  and  develope 
'*  without  obliterating  each  other  ?  All  parts 
''  which  do  not  sufficiently  injure  one  another 
'*  to  cause  mutual  destruction,  all  that  can 
"  exist  together,  exist ;  and  perhaps  in  the 
"  majority  of  living  creatures  there  are  fewer 
*'  related,  useful  or  necessary,  than  indifferent, 
"  useless  or  superfluous  parts.  But  we,  always 
"  wishing  to  refer  everything  to  a  certain 
"  purpose,  when  parts  have  no  apparent  use, 
"  invent  for  them  hidden  purposes  and 
'*  imagine  unfounded  relations  which  do  not 
"  exist  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  only  serve 
'*  to  obscure  matters.  We  fail  to  see  that 
"  thus  we  deprive  philosophy  of  its  true 
"  character,  and  misrepresent  its  object,  which 
"  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  the  '  How '  of 
"  things,  the  way  in  which  nature  acts,  and 
*'  that  we  substitute  for  this  real  object  a  vain 
**  idea  by  seeking  to  divine  the  *  Why '  of 
"  the  facts,  or  the  purpose  which  she  has  in 
"  her  activity."  * 

Buffon  had  a  dim  idea  that  rudimentary 
organs  and  similar  irregularities  found  their 
explanation  in  the  consideration  of  the  genera] 

*  *  Hist.  Nat.'  tome  v.  1755,  pp.  103, 104. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  149 

connection  of  natural  objects ;  he  indicated 
that  doubtful  species,  irregular  structures,  and 
anomalous  existences  found  their  place  in  the 
eternal  order  of  things,  as  well  as  all  others, 
and  that  they  complete  the  links  of  the  chain  ; 
but  he  has  not  expressed  his  opinion  upon 
these  points  with  any  distinctness,  like  Dr. 
Darwin.  The  chief  force  of  the  above  words 
is  evidently  directed  against  the  physico- 
theologians. 

The  last  century  was  a  period  of  the  most 
industrious  and  endless  search  after  design. 
In  opposition  to  the  French  philosophy, 
with  its  materialistic  tendency,  innumerable 
hosts  of  pious  writers  came  forward  in  Eng- 
land, Holland,  and  especially  in  Germany, 
and  undertook  to  prove  the  divine  origin 
of  all  things  from  the  study  of  nature  itself, 
and  indeed,  from  every  straw  and  sand- 
grain.  Following  on  the  two  best  works  of 
this  kind,  namely,  Swammerdamm's  *  Biblia 
Nature,'  and  John  Ray's  *  The  Wisdom  of 
God  Manifested  in  Creation'  (1G91),  there 
poured  forth  upon  the  people  such  a  flood 
of  writings  upon  natural  theology  that  a 
book    would    be    required    to   give    a   toler- 


150  LIFE    OF 

able  review  only  of  the  chief  of  them  : — 
Nehemiah  Grew's  'Cosmologia  Sacra'  (1711), 
and  Derham's  '  Astro-,'  Physico-,'  Hydro-'  and 
'  Pyro-theology '  were  occupied  more  with 
general  questions,  but  in  Germany,  on  this 
field  favoured  by  the  Leibnitz- Wolfian  philo- 
sophy, the  minutest  details  were  gone  into. 
A  shallow,  sickly  enthusiasm,  which  was 
called  "  natural  religion,"  gained  the  upper 
hand ;  the  whole  world  appeared  only  to 
exist  for  the  service,  pleasure  and  edification 
of  man.  Lesser's  '  Litho-theologie  '  (1735) 
and  Rohr's  '  Phyto-theologie '  (1739)  were 
followed,  going  more  into  detail,  by  Lesser's 
'  Insecto-theologie '  (1738),  and  the  same 
learned  pastor's  *  Testaceo-theologie,'  Zorn's 
'  Petino-theologie '  (1742)  and  two  '  Ichthyo- 
theologies'  by  Malm  and  Richter  (1751  and 
1752),  Gradually  even  the  individual  species 
of  animals  took  their  turn,  e.g.,  the  bees  in 
Schierach's  '  Melitto-theologie '  (.1767);  nay, 
even  such  natural  phenomena  of  very  doubt- 
ful benefit  as  swarms  of  locusts  and  earth- 
quakes were  rendered  harmless  in  Rathleff's 
voluminous  *  Acrido-theologie '  (1748)  and 
Pren's  '  Sismo-theologie '  (1772).    That  Hein- 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  151 

sius  celebrated  "  Snow  as  an  admirable  crea- 
ture of  God "  in  his  '  Chiono-theologie  ' 
(1735),  and  Ahlwardt  did  tbe  same  good 
service  to  tbunder  and  lightning  in  his 
'  Bronto-theologie '  (1745)  was  only  right  and 
proper. 

Buffon  could  not  escape  from  this  tendency 
of  his  time,  and  in  the  first  volume  of  his 
'  Natural  History  '  he  devoted  a  long  justifica- 
tory chapter  to  the  mountains  which  Burnet 
had  charged  with  being  evidences  of  the  Fall 
of  Man.  Feuerlin,  however,  had  preceded 
him  with  a  Latin  Dissertation  on  the  moun- 
tains as  divine  witnesses  (1729)  in  opposition 
to  Lucretius  and  Burnet.* 

Against  this  movement,  to  which  Brooke's 
poem  already  mentioned  also  pertains,  the 
elder  Darwin  opposed  himself,  not  indeed 
expressly,  but  for  that  very  reason  the  more 
efficaciously.  He  did  not  inquire  how  far 
this  or  that  proj^erty  of  plants  or  animals 
was  directly  or  indirectly  serviceable  to  man, 
but     rather    whether    particular     properties 

*  This  enumeration  of  physico-theological  writings  is  derived 
from  the  elaborate  work  of  G.  Zockler,  *  Gcschichte  der  Bezie- 
hungen  zwischen  Theologie  und  Naturwissenschaft,'  Giitcraloh^ 
1877-79. 


152  LIFE    OF 

were  not  useful  to  tlie  organisms  themselves, 
and  whether  it  was  conceivable  that  they 
could  have  acquired  such  properties  as 
favoured  their  well-being  by  an  internal  im- 
pulse and  gradual  improvement.  For  a  time 
he  seems  to  have  addressed  to  every  creature 
that  came  before  him,  some  such  apparently 
curious  questions  as  these :  Why  does  any 
creature  have  this  and  no  other  appearance  ? 
Why  has  this  plant  poisonous  juices  ?  Why 
has  that  one  spines  ?  Why  have  birds  and 
fishes  light-coloured  breasts  and  dark  backs  ? 
(fee,  &c.  The  last  canto  of  the  first  part  of 
the  *  Botanic  Garden,'  and  the  second  part 
generally,  are  particularly  rich  in  such 
justly-raised  and  truly  Darwinistic  questions. 
We  shall  have  to  recur  to  this  point  here- 
after, and  now,  after  this  digression,  return 
once  more  to  the  analysis  of  the  '  Botanic 
Garden.' 

In  the  fourth  canto,  addressed  to  the 
sylphs,  after  some  descriptions  of  winds  and 
climates,  the  author  turns  to  the  daughters  of 
the  air,  the  plants,  and  describes  their 
economy,  in  the  course  of  which  a  great 
number  of  exceedingly  modern  remarks  are 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  153 

anticipated.  In  a  note  to  verse  411  (p.  194) 
the  digestion  of  the  reserve  material  in 
the  seed-lobes  during  germination  is  de- 
scribed as  a  process  perfectly  analogous  to 
animal  digestion,  and  for  some  years  we  have 
been  aware  that  this  comparison  is  justified 
even  in  its  details ;  but  above  all,  in  tlie 
second  part,  in  which  plants  are  arranged 
in  accordance  with  the  sexual  system,  and 
their  several  relations  especially  described  in 
separate  pictures,  that  theme  of  the  protec- 
tion of  plants  from  unbidden  guests,  which 
Kerner  three  years  ago  made  the  subject  oi 
an  interesting  book,*  is  referred  to. 

Here  we  learn  in  the  first  j)lace  that  the 
waxy  and  resinous  secretions  of  the  green 
parts  serve  as  protections  against  cold  and 
moisture ;  and  that  essential  oils,  strong- 
odours,  and  poisons  are  useful  to  plants,  by 
protecting  them  from  marauding  insects  and 
other  animals.  The  root  of  the  meadow 
sdi^Ton  {Colchicwn  autumnale),  which  does  not 
ripen  its  seeds  until  the  following  spring, 
would  be  in  danger  of  destruction  in  winter 

♦  'Die  Schiitzmittel  der  BlUthen  gegen  unberufene  Gaste. 
Vienna,  1876. 


154  LIFE   OF 

by  animals  living  in  the  ground,  if  it  did  not 
contain  so  acrid  a  poison.*  This  example  of 
a  poisonous  bulb  is  particularly  instructive, 
because  here,  in  consequence  of  the  seeds 
ripening  only  in  the  next  period  of  vegeta- 
tion, the  existence  of  the  plant  in  winter 
would  be  seriously  compromised  if  the  bulb 
were  edible. 

The  holly  {Ilex  aquifolium)  led  Dr.  Darwin 
to  specially  thoughtful  considerations  in  this 
direction ;  he  speaks  of  it  as  follows  :t  *'  Many 
"  plants,  like  many  animals,  are  furnished 
"  with  arms  for  their  protection  ;  these  are 
"  either  aculei,  prickles,  as  in  rose  and  bar- 
''  berry,  which  are  formed  from  the  outer 
"  bark  of  the  plant ;  or  spiu^,  thorns,  as  in 
"  hawthorn,  which  are  an  elongation  of  the 
"  wood,  and  hence  more  difficult  to  be  torn 
"  off  than  the  former  ;  or  stimuli,  stings,  as  in 
"  the  nettles,  which  are  armed  with  a  venom- 
"  ous  fluid  for  the  annoyance  of  naked 
"  animals.  The  shrubs  and  trees,  which  have 
"  prickles  or  thorns,  are  grateful  food  to 
"  many  animals,  as  goosberry  and  gorse ;  and 

*  *  The  Loves  of  the  Plants,'  p.  22,  note, 
f  Ibid.  pp.  18,  19,  note. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  155 

**  would  be  quickly  devoured,  if  not  thus 
"  ai  med ;  the  stings  seem  a  j^rotection  against 
"  some  kinds  of  insects,  as  well  as  the  naked 
"  mouths  of  quadrupeds.  Many  plants  lose 
"  their  thorns  by  cultivation,  as  wild  animals 
''  lose  their  ferocity,  and  some  of  them  their 
"  horns.  A  curious  circumstance  attends  the 
'*  large  hollies  in  Needwood  Forest ;  they  are 
'*  armed  with  thorny  leaves  about  eight  feet 
''  high,  and  have  smooth  leaves  above ;  as  if 
^'  they  were  conscious  that  horses  and  cattle 
"  could  not  reach  their  upper  branches." 

On  the  other  hand,  that  the  plants  thus 
armed  furnish  animals  with  an  especially 
dainty  food  is  proved  by  the  fondness  of  the 
ass  for  thistles,  and  of  the  horse  for  furze,  of 
which  the  author  gives  an  instructive  ex- 
ample in  a  book  which  will  be  noticed  here- 
after. He  says  :  "  In  the  extensive  moorlands 
"  of  Staffordshire  the  horses  have  learnt  to 
''  stamp  upon  a  gorse-bush  with  one  of  their 
"  fore-feet  for  a  minute  together,  and  when 
'*  the  points  are  broken,  they  eat  it  without 
"  injury ;  which  is  an  art  other  horses  in 
**  the   fertile   parts   of    the   country   do   not 


156  LIFE    OF 

"  possess,  and  prick  their  mouths  till  they 
"  bleed,  if  they  are  induced  by  hunger  or 
"  caprice  to  attempt  eating  gorse."  * 

This  observer  of  nature  was  particularly 
interested  in  the  means  possessed  by  plants 
for  preventing  the  crawling  up  of  wingless 
insects  into  the  flowers.  He  explained  in 
this  way  the  small  water-basins  which  the 
leaves  form  about  the  stem  of  the  Fuller's 
Teasel,  and  which  have  recently  led  to  a 
remarkable  investigation  on  the  part  of  one 
of  his  descendants,!  as  also  the  larger  basins 
which  surround  the  flower  stalks  of  the 
Bromeliacese,  as  being  arrangements  destined 
partly  to  the  refreshment  of  the  plants,  and 
partly  to  serve  as  a  protection  for  its  flowers 
and  seeds.J  A  similar  protective  contrivance 
occurs  most  instructively  in  the  viscous  rings 
of  the  catchfly,  the  description  of  which 
may  follow  here  as  a  sample  of  the  *  Loves 
of  the  Plants,'  with  the  preliminary  remark 
that  the  numbers  relate  to  the  stamens  and 

*  *  Zoonomia/  vol.  i.  p.  162,  sect.  xvi.  ii. 

f  See  *  Kosmos,'  i.  p.  354. 

$  *  The  Loves  of  the  Plants,'  p.  37. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  157 

styles   in   each   of  these   individual  descrip- 
tions. 

"  The  fell  Silene  and  her  sisters  fair, 
Skiird  in  destruction,  spread  the  viscous  snare. 
The  harlot-band  ten  lofty  bravoes  screen. 
And  frowning  guard  the  magic  nets,  unseen. 
Haste,  glittering  nations,  tenants  of  the  air. 
Oh,  steer  from  hence  your  viewless  course  afar ! 
If  with  soft  words,  sweet  blushes,  nods,  and  smiles, 
The  three  dread  Syi'ens  lure  you  to  their  toils. 
Limed  by  their  art  in  vain  you  point  your  stings. 
In  Tain  the  efforts  of  your  whirring  wings ! — 
Go,  seek  your  gilded  mates  and  infant  hives, 
Nor  taste  the  honey  purchas'd  with  your  lives  I " 

In  a  note  upon  this  passage  of  his  poem 
(pp.  15,  IG)  Darwin  remarks  :  "  The  viscous 
'  material  which  surrounds  the  stalks  under 
'  the  flowers  of  this  plant,  and  of  the  Cucu- 
'  balus  Otites,  is  a  curious  contrivance  to 
'  prevent  various  insects  from  plundering  the 
^  honey,  or  devouring  the  seed.  In  the 
'  Dionasa  Muscipula  there  is  a  still  more  won- 
'  derful  contrivance  to  prevent  the  depreda- 
*'  tions  of  insects ;  the  leaves  are  armed  Avith 
^  long  teeth,  like  the  antennae  of  insects,  and 
'  lie  spread  upon  the  ground  round  the  stem ; 
'  and  are  so  irritable,  that  when  an  insect 
'  creeps  upon  them,  they  fold  up,  and  crush 


158  LIFE    OF 

"  or  pierce  it  to  death."  The  same  explana- 
tion is  satisfactory  to  him  for  the  capture  of 
insects  by  the  leaves  of  the  Sundew  (^Drosera), 
at  the  same  time,  that  both  plants  had  been 
already  suspected  of  using  the  captured 
insects  as  food.  Diderot,  it  may  be  remarked 
in  passing,  appears  to  have  been  the  first  to 
employ  the  expression  "  carnivorous  plants  ;" 
he  said  of  the  Venus'  fly-trap  (^Dloncea), 
"  Yoila  une  plante  presque  carnivore."* 

We  must  dwell  a  little  longer  upon  the 
investigations  of  the  elder  Darwin  upon  the 
protective  arrangements  of  plants,  because 
they  explain  to  us  a  remarkable  error  into 
which  this  acute  naturalist  fell  with  respect 
to  the  secretion  of  honey  in  flowers.  He 
believed,  especially  from  the  last-mentioned 
examples,  that  plants  were  generally  equipped 
so  as  to  keep  insects  and  other  lovers  of 
honey  away  from  the  flowers ;  and  he  was 
strengthened  in  this  opinion  by  the  circum- 
stance that  the  source  of  honey  in  most 
flowers  is  very  much  concealed,  and  often 
hidden  under  complex  protective  contriv- 
ances.    He  also  thought  that  the  resemblance 

*  Diderot,  CEuvres,  ed?  d'Assezat,  tome  xi.  p.  227. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  159 

of  the  flowers  of  many  orchids  to  insects 
could  be  best  explained  by  a  sort  of  mimicry. 
His  idea,  which  was  very  ingenious  although 
fallacious,  was  that  they  had  acquired  the 
aspect  of  flowers  already  occupied  by  insects  in 
order  to  be  protected  from  the  visits  of  lovers 
of  honey.  Thus  the  flowers  of  the  Fly-Ophrys 
resemble  a  small  wall-bee  {Apis  ichneumoned) 
so  closely  that  at  a  small  distance  they  appear 
to  be  already  occupied ;  and  a  South- Ameri- 
can Cypripedium  even  resembles  the  bird- 
catching  spider,  in  order  to  frighten  away 
the  humming  birds,  which  are  so  greedy  of 
honey.*  Although  founded  on  false  ex- 
amples, the  principle  of  mimicry  is  here  quite 
correctly  expounded,  and  perhaps  for  the  first 
time. 

The  works  of  Kolreuter  f  (1761)  and 
Sprengel  (1793),  which  explained  the  contri- 
vances for  the  allurement  of  insects,  a23pear  to 
have  been  unknown  to  Darwin,  or  to  have  been 
regarded  by  him  as  unconvincing,  for  even  in 

*  '  The  Economy  of  Vegetation,'  p.  201. 

t  Dr.  Darwin  certainly  mentions  casually  the  experiments  on 
Nicotiana,  by  which.  Kolreuter  thought  that  he  had  succeeded 
in  converting  one  plant  into  another,  but  he  only  knew  of  them 
from  another  book. 


160  LIFE    OF 

his  last  (posthumous)  work.  '  The  Temple  of 
Nature,'  he  speaks  of  the  honey-secretion  of 
plants  in  the  same  way  as  in  his  earliest,  writ- 
ings. In  a  special  article,*  he  endeavours  to 
fathom  the  secret  cause  of  the  general  and 
abundant  secretion  of  honey  by  most  flowers, 
and  arrives  at  the  supposition  that  it  is 
intended  to  serve  as  nutriment  and  as  an 
excitant  for  the  sexual  organs  of  the  plant, 
for  which  reason  it  flows  only  until  fertiliza- 
tion has  taken  place.  He  was  strengthened 
in  this  curious  error  by  the  circumstance 
that  insects  usually  go  in  search  of  honey 
in  no  other  stage  of  their  development 
than  at  the  period  of  their  sexual  maturity, 
that  is  to  say,  as  perfect  insects.  A  "  philo- 
sopher "  who  seems  to  have  accompanied  him 
upon  this  mistaken  course,  actually  supported 
his  opinion  by  the  absurd  conjecture  that 
the  first  insects  had  proceeded  from  a  meta- 
morphosis of  the  honey-loving  stamens  and 
pistils  of  the  flowers,  by  their  separation 
from  the  parent  plant  after  the  fashion  of  the 
male  flowers  of  Vallisneria,  and  "  that  many 

*  •  The  Economy  of  Vegetation/  Additional  Notes,  pp.  107- 
112.. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  IGl 

'  other  insects  have  gradually  in  long  process 
'  of    time   been    formed   from    these ;    some 

*  acquiring   wings,    others   fins,    and    others 

*  claws,  from  their  ceaseless  efforts  to  procure 
'  their  food,  or  to  secure  themselves  from  injury. 
'  He  (the  philosophic  friend)  contends  that 
'  none  of  these  changes  are  more  incompre- 
'  hensible  than  the  transformation  of  tadpoles 

*  into  frogs,  and  caterpillars  into  butter- 
'  flies."  * 

This  error  is  so  instructive  and  worth 
notice,  because  it  shows  us  the  difficulty  of  ex- 
plaining a  complex  natural  arrangement,  when 
one  starts  from  false  premises.  Could  Dr. 
Darwin,  who  afterwards  wrote  so  impressively 
upon  the  mischief  of  inbreeding,  have  heard 
from  any  one  the  magic  words  "  Benefits  of 
*'  Cross-fertilization,"  his  error  would  have 
fallen  like  scales  from  his  eyes  ;  but  he  firmly 
believed  that  flowers  are  as  far  as  possil)le 
adapted  for  self-fertilization,  and  he  stigmatizes 
a  case  of  fertilization  by  the  stamens  of  other 
flowers,  observed  by  chance  in  Colli^isotua, 
with  the  name  of  ''  adultery."t     At  the  same 

*  *  The  Economy  of  Vegetation,'  Additional  Notes,  p.  109. 
t  '  The  Economy  of  Vegetation,'  p.  197,  note. 


162  LIFE   OF 

time  the  exact  adaptation  of  the  honey-seek- 
ing insects  to  their  business  did  not  escape 
him,  for  in  one  passage,  after  describing  the 
great  care  which  Nature  has  taken  to  hide 
the  honey  of  the  honeysuckle  at  the  bottom  of 
a  long  tube  (in  contrast,  incom|)rehensible  to 
him,  with  those  flowers  in  which  it  lies  quite 
exposed),  he  adds  that  the  proboscis  of  bees 
and  lepidoptera  seems  to  be  especially  designed 
to  reach  it  in  spite  of  these  precautions.  "  The 
"  colouring  materials  of  vegetables,  like  those 
"  which  serve  the  purpose  of  tanning,  var- 
"  nishing,  and  the  various  medical  purposes, 
"  do  not  seem,"  he  says  in  a  note  on  the 
madder  plant,*  "  essential  to  the  life  of  the 
"  plant ;  but  seem  given  it  as  a  defence 
"  against  insects  or  other  animals,  to  whom 
"  these  materials  are  nauseous  or  deleterious. 
"  The  colours  of  insects  and  many  smaller 
*'  animals  contribute  to  conceal  them  from  the 
"  larger  ones  which  prey  upon  them.  Cater- 
"  pillars  which  feed  on  leaves  are  generally 
"  green  ;  earth-worms  the  colour  of  the  earth 
"  which  they  inhabit ;  butterflies,  which  fre- 
"  quent  flowers,  are  coloured  like  them  ;  small 

*  *  The  Loves  of  the  Plants,',  p.  38,  note. 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  163 

"  birds  which  frequent  hedges  have  greenish 
"  backs  like  the  leaves,  and  light  coloured 
''  bellies  like  the  sky,  and  are  lience  less 
"  visible  to  the  hawk,  who  passes  under  them 
"  or  over  them.  Those  birds  which  are  much 
"  amongst  flowers,  as  the  goldfinch  (Fringilla 
"  carduelis),  are  furnished  with  vivid  colours. 
"  The  lark,  partridge,  hare,  are  the  colour  of 
*'  dry  vegetables  or  earth  on  which  they  rest. 
•'  And  frogs  vary  their  colour  with  the  mud  of 
"  the  streams  which  they  frequent ;  and  those 
"  which  live  on  trees  are  green.  Fish,  which 
"  are  generally  suspended  in  water,  and 
**  swallows,  which  are  generally  suspended  in 
"  air  have  their  backs  the  colour  of  the  dis- 
"  tant  ground,  and  their  bellies  of  the  sky. 
"  In  the  colder  climates  many  of  these  become 
"  white  during  the  existence  of  the  snows. 
"  Hence  there  is  apparent  dasign  in  the  colours 
"  of  animals,  whilst  those  of  vegetables  seem 
"  consequent  to  the  other  properties  of  the 
"  materials  which  possess  them.' 


"* 


*  In  the  numerous  works  of  the  last  century  which  treat  of 
physico-theology,  and  especially  in  those  on  iusecto-theology,  in 
which  the  existence  of  a  purpose  in  all  the  aiTangcmenta  of 
Nature  was  discussed  in  all  senses,  there  are  probably  numerous 
examples  of  phenomena  pertaining  to  "  mimicry."     Thus  Rosol 


164  LIFE    OF 

In  his  chief  scientific  work,  the  *  Zoono- 
mia,'*  to  which  we  now  turn,  Darwin  has  also 
sought  to  fathom  the  causes  at  work  in  these 
colorations,  a  matter  to  which  we  shall  revert 
hereafter.  The  work  just  mentioned  essen- 
tially forms  a  physiology  and  psychology  of 
man  as  a  foundation  for  a  pathology,  but  at 
the  same  time  glances  are  everywhere  cast 
over  the  whole  animal  world.  What  rank 
this  work  may  take  in  the  history  of  physio- 
logy, psychology,  and  medicine,  I  cannot 
judge,  from  want  of  special  knowledge  in  those 
departments.  Upon  the  author's  contempora- 
ries it  produced  a  very  considerable  impres- 
sion, and  was  immediately  translated  into 
German  by  a  physician  of  note,f  and  the  trans- 
lator points  out  the  wonderful  agreement  of  its 
views  with  those  of  a  simultaneously  published 
work  of  the  celebrated    German  pathologist 


von  Kosenhof,  in  his  *  Insekten-Belustigungen"  (Niirnberg, 
1746),  describes  the  resemblance  which  the  caterpillars  of  geo- 
metric moths,  and  also  certain  moths  when  in  repose,  pi  esent  to 
dry  twigs,  and  thus  conceal  themselves,  but  this  group  of  bio- 
logical phenomena  seems  to  have  been  first  regarded  from  a  more 
general  point  of  view  by  Dr.  Darwin. 

*  *  Zoonomia,  or  the  Laws  of  Organic  Life.'  London,  1794- 
1798. 

t  By  Hofi-ath  J.  D.  Brandis,  in  5  vols.    Hanover,  1795-1799. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  166 

Reil;  Hufeland  also  was  strongly  influenced  by 
Darwin.  The  fundamental  idea,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  that  in  plants  and  animals  a  living  force 
is  at  work,  which,  endowed  in  both  with  sensi- 
bility, is  enabled  spontaneously  to  adapt  them 
to  the  circumstances  of  the  outer  world,  so 
that  the  assumption  of  innate  ideas,  of  divinely 
implanted  impulses  and  instincts  is  rendered 
unnecessary,  and  even  the  process  of  thought 
appears  attainable  as  the  legitimate  activity 
of  a  mechanical  analysis  and  combination. 
All  kinds  of  human  knowledge  originate  from 
the  senses,  the  action  of  which  is  regarded  as 
the  chief  source  of  knowledge,  and  is  accord- 
ingly first  of  all  investigated. 

As  regards  the  apparently  inborn  faculties 
which  young  animals  bring  with  them  into  the 
world,  the  author  explains  them  by  repeated 
exertions  of  the  muscles  under  the  guidance 
of  the  sensations  and  stimuli.  Thus  it  cannot 
be  wonderful  that  animals  are  born  into  the 
world  with  the  faculty  of  swimming,  or  of 
walking  upon  four  feet,  and  of  swallowing, 
for  they  learnt  to  swim  in  .the  Qgg  or  in  the 
body  of  the  mother,  whilst  to  walk  upon  two 
feet  is  for  quadrupeds  an  art  which  does  not 

8 


166  LIFE   OF 

belong  to  nature ;  the  swallowing  of  fluids  is 
learnt  by  every  foetus,  for  they  all  swallow  the 
amniotic  fluid  that  surrounds  them,  and  it  is 
only  the  eating  of  solid  matter  that  requires 
to  be  afterwards  learned.  In  the  learning  of 
new  things  the  imitative  impulse  has  most  to 
do ;  and  the  fact  that  man,  as  Aristotle  has 
said,  is  above  all  an  imitative  animal^  fits  him 
best  for  the  acquisition  of  difficult  perform- 
ances,— as,  for  example,  of  speech.  The 
author  ascribes  this  desire  of  imitation  even 
to  the  smallest  constructive  parts  of  the  body 
(as  we  should  say,  to  the  cells),  and  thereby 
explains  the  simultaneous  disease  of  whole 
complexes  of  them.  The  expression  of  the 
emotions,  also,  is  acquired  by  imitation, 
although  their  fundamental  conditions  are 
organically  imposed. 

The  author  very  carefully  studied  this 
subject,  which  has  been  elaborated  by  his 
grandson  with  so  much  success,  and  deduces 
his  formulae  especially  from  the  first  impres- 
sions of  new-born  creatures.  The  trembling 
of  fear  may  perhaps  be  referred  back  to 
the  cold  shivering  of  the  new-born  infant; 
and    weeping     to     the     first     irritation     of 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  167 

the-  lachrymal  glands  by  cold  air,  as  well 
as  by  pleasant  and  disagreeable  odours. 
That  anger  and  rage  are  universally  ex- 
pressed by  animals  taking  the  position  of 
attack,  is  immediately  intelligible.  As  regards 
smiling  and  the  expression  of  the  agreeable 
sensations,  the  author' refers  them,  as  well  as 
the  feeling  of  the  beauty  of  undulating  lines 
and  of  rounded  surfaces,  to  the  pleasure  of  the 
first  nourishment  derived  from  the  soft  and 
gently  rounded  maternal  breast.  "  In  the 
"  action  of  sucking,"  he  says,  "  the  lips  of  the 
"  infant  are  closed  around  the  nipple  of  its 
"  mother,  till  he  has  filled  his  stomach,  and 
"  the  pleasure  occasioned  by  the  stimulus 
"  of  this  grateful  food  succeeds.  Then  the 
"  sphincter  of  the  mouth,  fatigued  by  the 
"  continued  action  of  sucking,  is  relaxed  ;  and 
"  the  antagonist  muscles  of  the  face  gently 
"  acting,  produce  the  smile  of  pleasure,  as 
"  cannot  but  be  seen  by  all  who  are  conver- 
"  sant  with  children.  Hence  this  smile  during 
"  our  lives  is  associated  with  gentle  pleasure  ; 
"  it  is  visible  in  kittens,  and  puppies,  when 
"  they  are  played  with  and  tickled ;  but  more 
"  particularly    marks    the    human    features. 


168  LIFE   OP 

^'  For  in  children  this  expression  of  pleasure 
"  is  much  encouraged,  by  their  imitation  of 
"  their  parents,  or  friends,  who  generally 
"  address  them  with  a  smiling  countenance : 
"  and  hence  some  nations  are  more  remark- 
"  able  for  the  gaiety,  and  others  for  the 
"  gravity  of  their  looks."* 

Similarly  the  wagging  of  the  tails  of 
animals  and  the  purring  of  cats  are  referred 
back  to  certain  movements  which  they  acquire 
in  the  time  of  their  existence  as  sucklings. 
"  Lambs  shake  or  wriggle  their  tails,  at  the 
"  time  when  they  first  suck,  to  get  free  of 
''  the  hard  excrement  which  had  been  long 
"  lodged  in  the  bowels.  Hence  this  becomes 
"  afterwards  a  mark  of  pleasure  in  them,  and 
"  in  dogs,  and  other  tailed  animals.  But 
"  cats  gently  extend  and  contract  their  paws 
"  when  they  are  pleased,  and  purr  by  draw- 
"  ing  in  their  breath,  both  which  resemble 
"  their  manner  of  sucking,  and  thus  become 
"  their  language  of  pleasure,  for  these  animals 
"  having  collar-bones,  use  their  paws  like 
**  hands  when  they  suck,  which  dogs  and 
**  sheep    do    not."f      These    examples   may  -"^ 

*  '  Zoonomia,'  vol.  i.  xvi.  8,  4.  f  lb,  8,  3. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  169 

serve  to  show  the  author's  treatment  of  this 
diflScult  theme. 

The  arts  and  migratory  and  social  in- 
stincts of  animals  are  referred  to  personal 
consideration  and  gradual  experience  of 
advantages  to  be  attained.  Here  also  the 
imitative  impulse  plays  a  principal  part; 
and  if  a  horse,  for  example,  wishes  to  be 
scratched  in  a  particular  part  which  he 
cannot  reach  with  his  muzzle,  he  bites  his 
neighbour  in  the  spot  in  question,  and  the 
latter  at  once  understands  the  hint  and  does 
what  is  required  of  him.  That  the  arts 
of  animals  are  acquired  is  proved  by  the  ex- 
ample already  adduced  of  certain  horses  stamp- 
ing down  the  spiny  furze,  which  the  horses 
of  more  fertile  districts  do  not  understand ; 
and  the  author  also  cites  many  other  instances 
of  local  deviations  and  innovations  in  nest- 
building  and  the  construction  of  burrows. 
Here  also  we  find  already  mentioned  those 
statements  which  have  been  frequently  made 
of  late  years,  with  regard  to  bees  which,  in 
certain  distant  countries  (in  this  case  the 
Island  of  Barbadoes),  store  up  no  honey.  The 
author  regards  the  artificial  skill  of  bees  and 


170  LIFE    OP 

ants  as  very  ancient^  seeing  tliat  it  has  become 
so  perfectly  developed. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  the 
author  regards  these  instincts  as  communi- 
cated  solely  by  imitation ;  he  accepts  without 
hesitation  the  heritability  of  acquired  cor- 
poreal peculiarities  and  mental  faculties. 
Upon  these  points  there  is,  in  the  section 
(xxxix.)  which  treats  of  generation,  and  is  of 
the  greatest  importance  to  us,  an  introductory 
observation  which  contains,  as  in  a  nutshell, 
the  explanation  of  the  biological  fundamental 
law,  and  expresses  the  same  ideas  which  Mr. 
Samuel  Butler  last  year  made  the  subject  of  a 
comprehensive  book.*  "  The  ingenious  Dr. 
"  Hartley  in  his  work  on  man,  and  some 
"  other  philosophers,"  says  Darwin,  "  have 
"  been  of  opinion,  that  our'  immortal  part 
"  acquires  during  this  life  certain  habits  of 
"  action  or  of  sentiment,  which  become  for- 
*'  ever  indissoluble,  continuing  afte-r  death  in 
**  a  future  state  of  existence ;  and  add,  that  if 
"  these  habits  are  of  the  malevolent  kind, 
"  they  must  render  the  possessor  miserable 
*'  even  in  heaven.     I  would  apply  this  ingenious 

'     *  *  Life  and  Habit.'    London,  1878. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  171 

"  idea  to  the  generation,  or  production  of  the 
"  emhryon,  or  new  animal  which  partakes  so 
"  much  of  the  form  and  propensities  of  the 
"  parent r  And  he  continues  as  follows : 
"  Owing  to  the  imperfection  of  language  the 
"  offspring  is  termed  a  new  animal,  but  is  in 
"  truth  a  branch  or  elongation  of  the  parent ; 
**  since  a  part  of  the  embry on-animal  is,  or 
'*  was,  a  part  of  the  parent ;  and  therefore  in 
"  strict  language  it  cannot  be  said  to  be 
"  entirely  new  at  the  time  of  its  production ; 
"  and  therefore  it  may  retain  some  of  the 
^*  habits  of  the  parent-system."* 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  author  speaks 
here  only  of  one  parent ;  this  is  because  he 
supposed  that  the  embryo  consists  of  the 
spermatozoid  produced  by  the  father,  which 
in  the  mother  finds  little  more  than  a  suitable 
nutritive  fluid,  and  a  nidus  in  which  it  can 
develop  itself  into  a  perfect  animal.  The 
resemblance  of  the  newly  produced  creature  to 
the-  mother  may  be  explained  by  the  influence 
of  the  nutritive  material  furnished  by  her. 
Leaving  out  of  consideration  this  easily  ex- 
cusable,   and,    in    itself,  unimportant    error 

*  *  Zoonomia,'  xxxix.  1. 


172  LIFE   OP 

(which  I  was  obliged  to  mention  only  because 
the  author  always  speaks  of  a  "filament," 
instead  of  the  egg  as  the  germ  of  the  living 
creature),  the. author  now,  with  the  greatest 
acumen,  maintains  the  theory  of  epigenesis  in 
opposition  to  the  theory  of  evolution  (in  the 
older  sense),  showing  that  every  creature  is  a 
complete  new  formation,  which,  with  each  grade 
of  development  attained  by  it,  develops  other 
formative  impulses,  and  thus  can  incorporate 
with  its  own  essence  even  the  latest  acquisi- 
tions of  its  parents,-  by  virtue  of  the  faculty  of 
recollection  possessed  by  the  embryo.  The 
old  theory  of  enclosure  could  not  explain  such 
innovations  in  the  domain  of  life,  and  against 
it  Dr.  Darwin  therefore  turned  with  lively 
sarcasm.  "  Many  ingenious  philosophers," 
he  says,  ''  have  found  so  great  difficulty  in 
"  conceiving  the  manner  of  the  reproduction 
'*  of  animals,  that  they  have  supposed  all  the 
"  numerous  progeny  to  have  existed  in  minia- 
"  ture  in  the  animal  originally  created ;  and 
"  that  these  infinitely  minute  forms  are  only 
"  evolved  or  distended,  as  the  embryon  in- 
"  creases  in  the  womb.  This  idea,  besides  its 
"  being  unsupported  by  any  analogy  we  are 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  173 

"  acquainted  with,  ascribes  a  greater  tenuity 
"  to  organized  matter  than  we  can  readily 
'*  admit ;  as  these  included  embryons  are  sup- 
"  posed  each  of  them  to  consist  of  the  various 
"  and  complicate  parts  of  animal  bodies :  they 
"  must  possess  a  much  greater  degree  of 
"  minuteness,  than  that  which  was  ascribed 
"  to  the  devils  that  tempted  St.  Anthony ; 
"  of  whom  20,000  were  said  to  be  able 
"  to  dance  a  saraband  on  the  point  of  the 
*•'  finest  needle  without  incommoding  each 
"  other."  * 

In  the  eighth  paragraph  of  the  fourth  part 
of  this  same  section  the  author  gives  a  short 
sketch  of  the  theory  of  evolution,  which,  how- 
ever, must  have  been  more  clearly  developed 
in  his  mind.  I  reproduce  it  here,  with  some 
abridgments,  because  in  it,  fifteen  years  before 
the  appearance  of  Lamarck's  '  Philosophle 
Zoologique,'  the  principles  of  evolution  were 
completely  set  forth.  Darwin  says,  "  When 
"  we  revolve  in  our  minds,  first,  the  great 
'^  changes,  which  we  see  naturally  produced 
"  in  animals  after  their  nativity,  as  in  the 
'^  production   of  Ihe   butterfly  with   painted 

*  *  Zoonomia/  vol.  i.  §  xxxix.  iii.  1. 


174  LIFE   OF 

"  wings  from  the  crawling  caiterpillar ;  or  of 
"  the  respiring  frog  from  the  subnatant  tad- 
"  pole ;  from  the  feminine  boy  to  the  bearded 

"  man 

"  Secondly,  when  we  think  over  the  great 
"  changes  introduced  into  various  animals  by 
"  artificial  or  accidental  cultivation,  as  in 
"  horses,  which  we  have  exercised  for  the 
"  different  purposes  of  strength  or  swiftness, 
"  in  carrying  burthens  or  in  running  races ; 
"or  in  dogs,  which  have  been  cultivated  for 
"  strength  and  courage,  as  the  bull-dog ;  or 
*'  for  acuteness  of  his  sense  of  smell,  as  the 
"  hound  and  spaniel ;  or  for  the  swiftness  of  his 
"  foot  as  the  greyhound ;  or  for  his  swimming 
"  in  the  water,  or  for  drawing  snow-sledges, 

"  the  rough-haired  dogs  of  the  north ; 

"  and  add  to  these  the  great  changes  of  shape 
"  and  colour,  which  we  daily  see  produced  in 
"  smaller  animals  from  our  domestication  of 
"  them,  as  rabbits,  or  pidgeons ;  or  from  the 
"  difference  of  climates,  and  even  of  seasons ; 
"  thus  the  sheep  of  warm  climates  are  covered 
'^  with  hair  instead  of  wool ;  and  the  hares  and 
'\  partridges  of  the  latitudes  which  are  long 
''  buried  in  snow,  become  white  during  the 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  175 

''  winter  montlis  ;  add  to  these  the  various 
**  changes  produced  in  the  forms  of  mankind 
"  by  their  early  modes  of  exertion  ;  or  by  the 
"  diseases  occasioned  by  their  habits  of  life ; 
*'  both  of  which  become  hereditary,  and  that 
"  through  many  generations.  Those  who 
"  labour  at  the  anvil,  the  oar,  or  the  loom,  as 
"  well  as  those  who  carry  sedan-chairs,  or 
"  those  who  have  been  educated  to  dance 
"  upon  the  rope,  are  distinguishable  by  the 

"  shape  of  their  limbs 

"Thirdly,  when  we  enumerate  the  great 
*'  changes  produced  in  the  species  of  animals 
"  before  their  nativity ;  these  are  such  as 
"  resemble  the  form  or  colour  of  their  parents, 
"  which  have  been  altered  by  the  cultivation 
"  or  accidents  above  related,  and  are  thus 
"  continued  to  their  posterity.  Or  they  are 
"  changes  produced  by  the  mixture  of  species, 
"  as  in  mules ;  or  changes  produced  probably 
"  by  the  exuberance  of  nourishment  supplied 
"  to  the  fetus,  as  in  monstrous  births  with 
"  additional  limbs  ;  many  of  these  enormities 
'*  of  shape  are  propagated,  and  continued  as 
*'  a  variety  at  least,  if  not  as  a  new  species 


176  LIFE    OP 

of  animal.  I  have  seen  a  breed  of  cats 
with  an  additional  claw  on  every  foot ;  of 
poultry  also  with  an  additional  claw,  and 
with  wings  to  their  feet ;  and  of  others 
without  rumps.  Mr.  Buffon  mentions  a 
breed  of  dogs  without  tails,  which  are 
common  at  E-ome  and  at  Naples,  which  he 
supposes  to  have  been  produced  by  a 
custom  long  established  of  cutting  their 
tails  close  off.  There  are  many  kinds  of 
pidgeons,  admired  for  their  peculiarities, 
which  are  monsters  thus  produced  and 
propagated.  .  .  .  When  we  consider  all 
these  changes  of  animal  form,  and  innumer- 
able others,  which  may  be  collected  from  the 
books  of  natural  history ;  we  cannot  but  be 
convinced,  that  the  fetus  or  erabryon  is 
formed  by  apposition  of  new  parts,  and  not 
by  the  distention  of  a  primordial  nest  of 
germs  included  one  within  another  like  the 
cups  of  a, conjurer. 

"  Fourthly,  when  we  revolve  in  our  minds 
the  great  similarity  of  structure  which 
obtains  in  all  the  warm-blooded  animals,  as 
well    quadrupeds,    birds,    and    amphibious 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  177 

"  animals,  as  in  mankind  ;  from  the  monse 
**  and  bat  to  the  elephant  and  whale ;  one  is 
"  led  to  conclude,  that  they  have  alike  been 
*^  produced  from  a  similar  living  filament. 
"  In  some  this  filament  in  its  advance  to 
'*  maturity  has  acquired  hands  and  fingers, 
"with  a  fine  sense  of  touch,  as  in  mankind. 
"  In  others  it  has  acquired  claws  or  talons 
"  ...  in  others  toes  with  an  intervening 
*'  web,  or  membrane  ...  in  others  it  has 
'*  acquired  cloven  hoofs  ...  and  whole  hoofs 
"  in  others  .  .  .  while  in  the  bird  kind  this 
"  original  living  filament  has  put  forth  wings 
"  instead  of  arms  or  legs,  and  feathers  instead 
"  of  hair.  In  some  it  has  protruded  horns  on 
"  the  forehead  instead  of  teeth  in  the  fore  part 
"  of  the  upper  jaw ;  in  others  tushes  instead  of 
"  horns ;  and  in  others  beaks  instead  of  either. 
"  And  all  this  exactly  is  daily  seen  in  the 
"  transmutations  of  the  tadpole,  which  acquires 
*'  legs  and  lungs  when  he  wants  them ;  and 
"  loses  his  tail  when  it  is  no  longer  of  service 
"  to  him. 

"  Fifthly,  from  their  first  rudiment,  or  pri- 
"  mordium,  to  the  termination  of  their  lives, 
"  all  animals  undergo   perpetual  transforma- 


178  LIFE   OF 

tions,  whicli  are  in  part  produced  by  their 
own  exertions  in  consequence  of  their 
desires  and  aversions,  of  their  pleasures  and 
pains,  or  of  irritations,  or  of  associations; 
and  many  of  these  acquired  forms  or 
propensities  are  transmitted  to  their  pos- 
terity. 

**  As  air  and  water  are  supplied  to  animals 
in  sufficient  profusion,  the  three  great  objects 
of  desire,  which  have  changed  the  forms  of 
many  animals  by  their  exertions  to  gratify 
them,  are  those  of  lust,  hunger,  and  security. 
A  great  want  of  one  part  of  the  animal 
world  has  consisted  in  the  desire  of  the 
exclusive  possession  of  the  females;  and 
these  have  acquired  weapons  to  combat 
each  other  for  this  purpose,  as  the  very 
thick,  shield-like,  horny  skin  on  the 
shoulder  of  the  boar  is  a  defence  only 
against  animals  of  his  own  species,  who 
strike  obliquely  upwards,  nor  are  his  tushes 
for  other  purposes,  except  to  defend  himself, 
as  he  is  not  naturally  a  carnivorous  animal. 
So  the  horns  of  the  stag  are  sharp  to  offend 
his  adversary,  but  are  branched  for  the 
purpose  of  parrying  or  receiviug  the  thrusts 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  179 

"  of  horns  similar  to  his  own,  and  have, 
"  therefore,  been  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
"  combating  other  stags  for  the  exclusive 
"  possession  of  the  females ;  who  are  observed, 
"  like  the  ladies  in  the  time  of  chivalry,  to 
**  attend  the  car  of  the  victor. 

"  The  birds  which  do  not  carry  food  to  their 
"  young,  and  do  not  therefore  marry,  are 
"  armed  with  spurs  for  the  purpose  of  fight- 
'*  ing  for  the  exclusive  possession  of  the 
"  females,  as  cocks  and  quails.  It  is  certain 
"  that  these  weapons  are  not  provided  for 
"  their  defence  against  other  adversaries, 
**  because  the  females  of  these  species  are 
"  without  this  armour.  The  final  cause  of  this 
"  contest  amongst  the  males  seems  to  be,  that  the 
*'  strongest  and  most  active  animal  should  pro- 
^^  pagate  the  species,  which  should  thence  become 
**  improved, 

"  Another  great  want  consists  in  the  means 
"  of  procuring  food,  which  has  diversified  the 
''  forms  of  all  species  of  animals.  Thus  the 
"  nose  of  the  swine  has  become  hard  for  the 
"  purpose  of  turning  up  the  soil  in  search  of 
**  insects  and  of  roots.  The  trunk  of  the 
"  elephant  is  an  elongation  of  the  nose  for  the 


180  LIFE   OF 

"  purpose  of  pulling  down  the  branches  of 
'*  trees  for  his  food,  and  for  taking  up  water 
•*  without  bending  his  knees.  Beasts  of  prey 
"  have  acquired  strong  jaws  or  talons.  Cattle 
'*  have  acquired  a  rough  tongue  and  a  rough 
"  palate  to  pull  off  the  blades  of  grass.  ,  .  . 
"  Some  birds  have  acquired  harder  beaks  to 
''  crack  nuts,  as  the  parrot.  Others  have 
•'  acquired  beaks  adapted  to  break  the  harder 
**  seeds,  as  sparrows.  Others  for  the  softer 
''  seeds  of  flowers,  or  the  buds  of  trees,  as  the 
'*  finches.  Other  birds  have  acquired  long 
"  beaks  to  penetrate  the  moister  soils  in  search 
"  of  insects  or  roots,  as  woodcocks,  and  others 
"  broad  ones  to  filtrate  the  water  of  lakes,  and 
"  to  retain  aquatic  insects.  All  which  seem  to 
"  Iiave  been  gi^adually  produced  during  many 
"  generations  .by  the  perpetual  endeavour  of  the 
*'  creatures  to  supply  the  want  of  food^  and  to 
"  have  been  delivered  to  their  posterity  with 
"  constant  improvement  of  them  for  the  purpose 
"  required, 

"The  third  great  want  among  animals  is 
"  that  of  security,  which  seems  much  to  have 
**  diversified  the  forms  of  their  bodies  and  the 
^'  colour  of  them ;  these  consist  in  the  means 


ERASMUS    DARWIN-.  181 

"  of  escaping  other  animals  more  powerful 
"  than    themselves.*     Hence    some    animals 

*  The  question  here  only  touched  upon  is  discussed  in  detail 
by  the  author  in  another  part  of  the  *  ZooQomia '  (§  xxxix.  5,  1) 
in  the  following  words : — 

"  The  efficient  cause  of  the  various  colours  of  the  eggs  of  birds, 
and  of  the  hair  and  feathers  of  animals,  is  a  subject  so  curious, 
that  I  shall  beg  to  introduce  it  in  this  place.  The  colours  of 
many  animals  seem  adapted  to  their  purposes  of  concealing 
themselves,  either  to  avoid  danger,  or  to  spring  upon  their  prey. 
Thus  the  snake,  and  wild  cat,  and  leopard,  are  so  coloured  as  to 
resemble  dark  leaves  and  their  lighter  interstices ;  birds  resemble 
the  colour  of  the  brown  ground,  or  the  green  hedges,  which  they 
frequent ;  and  moths  and  butterflies  are  coloured  like  the  flowers 

which  they  rob  of  their  honey These  coloui-s  have, 

however,  in  some  instances,  another  use,  as  in  the  black  diverging 
area  from  tbe  eyes  of  the  swan ;  which,  as  his  eyes  are  placed 
less  prominent  than  those  of  other  birds,  for  the  convenience  of 
putting  down  his  head  under  water,  prevents  the  rays  of  light 
from  being  reflected  into  his  eye,  and  thus  dazzling  his  sight, 
both  in  air  and  beneath  the  water ;  which  must  have  happened, 
if  that  surface  had  been  white  like  the  rest  of  his  feathers. 

"  There  is  a  still  more  wonderful  thing  concerning  these 
colours  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  concealment ;  which  is,  that 
the  eggs  of  birds  are  so  coloured  as  to  resemble  the  colour  of  the 
adjacent  objects  and  their  interstices.  The  eggs  of  hedge-birds 
are  greenish,  with  dark  spots ;  those  of  crows  and  magpies, 
which  are  seen  from  beneath  through  wicker  nests,  are  white 
with  dark  spots  ;  and  those  of  larks  and  partridges  are  russet  or 
brown,  like  their  nests  or  situations. 

"  A  thing  still  more  astonishing  is,  that  many  animals  in 
countries  covered  with  snow  become  white  in  %vinter,  and  are 
said  to  change  their  colour  again  in  the  warmer  months.  .  .  . 
The  final  cause  of  these  colours  is  easily  understood,  as  they 
serve  some  purposes  of  the  animal,  but  the  efficient  cause  would 
seem  almost  beyond  conjectm*e." 

The  author  endeavoured,  however,  to  clear  the  way  towards 


182  LIFE   OP 

'*  have  acquired  wings  instead  of  legs,  as  the 
"  smaller  birds,  for  the  purpose  of  escape; 
'^  others  great  length  of  fin  or  of  membrane, 
"  as  the  flying  fish,  and  the  bat.  Others  great 
"  swiftness  of  foot  as  the  hare.  Others  have 
*'  acquired  hard  or  armed  shells,  as  the  tortoise 
*'  and  the  echinus  marinus. 

"  The  contrivances  for  the  purposes  of 
'*  security  extend  even  to  vegetables,  as  is 
^'  seen  in  the  wonderful  and  various  means  of 


an  explanation  by  saying  that  the  impression  of  the  constant 
white  light  of  the  snow,  or  of  the  yellow  of  the  desert,  or  of  the 
green  of  the  woods,  might  be  transferred  by  reflex  action  from 
the  retina  to  the  external  papiilse  of  the  skin  and  its  coverings  ; 
"and  thus,  like  the  fable  of  the  camelion,  all  animals  may 
possess  a  tendency  to  be  coloured  somewhat  like  the  colours 
they  most  frequently  inspect,  and  finally,  that  colours  may  be 
thus  given  to  the  egg-shell  by  the  imagination  of  the  female 
parent."  This  supposition  has  lately  been  proved  to  be  perfectly 
correct  with  respect  to  certain  fishes,  amphibia,  reptiles,  and 
moUusca,  which  always  suit  themselves  to  their  lighter  or  darker 
surroundings  (see  Seidlitz,  Die  chromatische  Funhtion  ah 
natiirliches  Schutzmittelj  in  his  '  Beitrdge  zur  Descendenz- 
Theorie.^  Leipzig,  1876) ;  but  it  does  not  sufiSce  for  the  constant 
colorations,  notwithstanding  the  similar  hypotheses  put  forward 
by  Wallace  and  others  (see  Kosmos,  iv.  p.  120),  nor  did  it  by 
any  means  satisfy  the  elder  Darwin,  as  appears  from  his  further 
remarks  that  the  uniformity  of  the  effect  would  indicate  some 
other  general  cause,  still  to  be  made  out.  This  cause  lies  in 
natural  selection,  and  the  reticence  of  the  elder  Darwin  in  the 
face  of  these  circumstances,  is  the  best  proof  how  imperfect  any 
theory  of  evolution  remains  without  this  principle. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  183 

"  their  concealing  or  defending  their  honey 
**  from  insects,  and  their  seeds  from  birds. 
"  On  the  other  hand,  swiftness  of  wing  has 
"  been  acquired  by  hawks  and  swallows  to 
"  pursue  their  prey ;  and  a  proboscis  of 
"  admirable  structure  has  been  acquired  by 
"  the  bee^  the  moth,  and  the  humming  bird,  for 
"  the  purpose  of  plundering  the  nectaries  of 
"  flowers.  All  which  seem  to  have  been  formed 
"  by  the  original  living  filament,  excited  into 
"  action  by  the  necessities  of  the  creatures, 
"  which  possess  them,  and  on  which  their 
^'  existence  depends. 

"From  thus  meditating  on  the  great 
"  similarity  of  the  structure  of  the  warm- 
'^  blooded  animals,  and  at  the  same  time  of 
"  the  great  changes  they  undergo  both  before 
"  and  after  their  nativity ;  and  by  considering 
"  in  how  minute  a  portion  of  time  many  of 
"  the  changes  of  animals  above  described  have 
"  been  produced ;  would  it  be  too  bold  to 
**  imagine,  that  in  the  great  length  of  time, 
"  since  the  earth  began  to  exist,  perhaps 
"  millions  of  ages  before  the  commencement 
"  of  the  history  of  mankind,  would  it  be  too 
"  bold   to    imagine,   that   all   warm  -  blooded 


184  LIFE   OF 

*  animals  have  arisen  from  one  living  filament 
'  which  THE  Great  First  Cause  endued  with 

*  animality,  with  the  power  of  acquiring  new 

*  parts,    attended    with     new    propensities, 
'  directed  by  irritations,  sensations,  volitions, 

*  and  associations ;  and  thus  possessing  the 

*  faculty  of  continuing  to  improve  by  its  own 
inherent  activity,  and  of  delivering  down 

'  those  improvements  by   generation  to  its 

'  posterity,  world  without  end !" 

It  might  be  doubted,  the  author  goes  on  to 
say,  whether  the  fishes,  which  have  fins 
instead  of  feet  or  wings,  are  of  the  same 
blood  as  the  warm-blooded  animals ;  but 
whales^  seals,  and  above  all  the  frog,  which 
becomes  transformed  from  a  fish-like  aquatic 
animal  into  an  aerial  quadruped  furnished 
with  lungs,  show  that  there  is  no  separation 
here.  On  the  other  hand  the  insects  have 
evidently  proceeded  from  a  different  living 
filament,  as  also  the  Linnean  class  of  Vermes, 
to  which  sponges,  corals,  molluscs,  &c.,  were 
referred.  The  same  must  be  supposed  with 
regard  to  plants,  which  the  author,  like  Gothe, 
regarded  as  composite  individuals,  comparable 
to  coral  stocks. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  185 

"Linnaeus  supposes,"  continues  Darwin, 
"  in  the  Introduction  to  his  '  Natural  Orders,' 
"  that  very  few  vegetables  were  at  first  created, 
"  and  that  their  numbers  were  increased  by 
*'  their  intermarriages,  and  adds,  suadent  hcec 
"  creatoris  leges  a  simplicihus  ad  composita. 
"  Many  other  changes  seem  to  have  arisen  in 
•*  them  by  their  perpetual  contest  for  light 
^*  and  air  above  ground,  and  for  food  and 
"  moisture  beneath  the  soil  .  .  .  from  climate, 
"  or  other  causes.  From  these  one  might 
"  be  led  to  imagine,  that  each  plant  at  first 
"  consisted  of  a  single  bulb  or  flower  to  each 
"  root,  as  the  gentianella  and  daisy  ;*  and  that 
"  in  the  contest  for  air  and  light  new  buds 
''  grew  on  the  old  decaying  flower  stem, 
"  shooting  down  their  elongated  roots  to  the 
"  ground,  and  that  in  process  of  ages  tall 
"  trees  were  thus  formed,  and  an  individual 
"  bulb  became  a  swarm  of  vegetables.  Other 
^'  plants,  which  in  this  contest  for  light  and 
"  air  were  too  slender  to  rise  by  their  own 
"  strength,  learned  by  degrees  to  adhere  to 
"  their  neighbours,  either  by  jDutting  forth 
"  roots  like  the  ivy,  or  by  tendrils  like  the 
"  vine,  or  by  spiral  contortions  like  the  honey- 


186  LIFE   OF 

**  suckle ;  or  by  growing  upon  them  like  the 
"  misleto,  and  taking  nourishment  from  their 
**  barks ;  or  by  only  lodging  or  adhering  on 
"  them,  and  deriving  nourishment  from  the 
"  air,  as  tillandsia.* 

"  Shall  we  then  say  that  the  vegetable 
"  living  filament  was  originally  different  from 
"  that  of  each  tribe  of  animals  above- 
"  described  ?  And  that  the  productive  living 
'*  filament  of  each  of  those  tribes  was  different 
"  originally  from  the  other  ?  Or,  as  the 
•'  earth  and  ocean  were  probably  peopled  with 
"  vegetable  productions  long  before  the  exis- 
*'  tence  of  animals ;  and  many  families  of 
"  these  animals  long  before  other  families  of 
"  them,  shall  we  conjecture  that  one  and  the 
"  same  kind*  of  living  filaments  is  and  has 
"  been  the  cause  of  all  organic  life  ?  " 

[Here  the  author  refers  to  the  supposition 
that  America  is  perhaps  the  youngest  part  of 

*  In  his  multifarious  investigations  upon  the  means  of  dif- 
fusion of  the  seeds  of  plants,  by  wind,  flying  and  projectile  con- 
trivances, hooks,  fur-animals  and  birds,  he  mentions  with  the 
greatest  admiration  the  seeds  of  Tillandsia^  which  never  germi- 
nate on  the  ground.  They  are  provided  on  their  crown  with 
numerous  long  filaments,  by  means  of  which  they  fly  upon  the 
winds  like  spiders,  until  the  threads  catch  upon  the  branch  of  a 
tree,  and  fix  the  genu  there.    (*  The  Loves  of  the  Plants,'  p.  60.) 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  187 

the  world,  as  its  inhabitants  have  not  yet  ad- 
vanced so  far  in  inteHigence  as  those  of  the 
Old  World,  and  its  animals  {e.g,  alligators 
and  tigers)  are  smaller  and  weaker.  More- 
over, the  mountains  there  are  higher  and  less 
weathered  than  ours.  That  the  great  lakes  of 
North  America  are  not  yet  salt,  may  be  ex- 
plained by  their  outflow.] 

"  This  idea  of  the  gradual  formation  and 
^*  improvement  of  the  animal  world,"  he  goes 
on  to  say,  **  seems  not  to  have  been  unknown 
*'  to  the  ancient  philosophers.  Plato,  having 
"  probably  observed  the  reciprocal  generation 
^*  of  inferior  animals,  as  snails  and  worms, 
*'  was  of  opinion  that  mankind  with  all  other 
"  animals  were  originally  hermaphrodites 
"  during  the  infancy  of  the  world,  and  were 
"  in  process  of  time  separated  into  male  and 
"  female.  The  breasts  and  teats  of  all  male 
"  quadrupeds,  to  which  no  use  can  be  now 
*'  assigned,  adds  perhaps  some  shadow  of 
"  probability  to  this  opinion.  Linnaeus  ex- 
*^  cepts  the  horse  from  the  male  quadrupeds, 
**  who  have  teats ;  which  might  have  shown 
"  the  earlier  origin  of  his  existence ;  but 
"  Mr.  J.  Hunter  asserts,  that  he  has  discovered 


188  LIFE   OF 

"  the  vestiges  of  them  ....  and  has  at  the 
"  same  time  enriched  natural  history  with  a 
"  very  curious  fact  concerning  the  male 
"  pidgeon ;  at  the  time  of  hatching  the  eggs 
*'  both  the  male  and  female  pidgeon  undergo  a 
"  great  change  in  their  crops,  which  thicken 
"  and  become  corrugated,  and  secrete  a  kind 
"  of  milky  fluid,  which  coagulates,  and  with 
"  which  alone  for  a  few  days  they  feed  their 
"  young,  and  afterwards  feed  them  with  this 
"  coagulated  fluid  mixed  with  other  food. 
"  How  this  resembles  the  breasts  of  female 
"  quadrupeds  after  the  production  of  their 
"  young !  and  how  extraordinary,  that  the 
*'  male  should  at  this  time  give  milk  as  well 
"  as  the  female  ! 

"  The  late  Mr.  David  Hume,  in  his  posthu- 
"  mous  works,  places  the  powers  of  genera- 
*'  tion  much  above  those  of  our  boasted 
"  reason ;  and  adds,  that  reason  can  only 
"  make  a  machine,  as  a  clock  or  a  ship,  but 
"  the  power  of  generation  makes  the  maker 
''  of  the  machine ;  and  probably  from  having 
"  observed,  that  the  greatest  part  of  the  earth 
"  has  been  formed  out  of  organic  recrements 
"  ....  he  concludes  that   the  world   itself 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  189 


fc 


might  have  been  generated  rather  than 
**  created ;  that  is,  it  might  have  been  pro- 
"  duced  from  very  small  beginnings,  increas- 
"  ing  by  the  activity  of  its  inherent  principles, 
"  rather  than  by  a  sudden  evolution  of  the 
'  whole  by  the  Almighty  fiat. — What  a  mag 
*'  nificent  idea  of  the  infinite  power  of  the 
''  Great  Architect  !  The  Cause  of  Causes  ! 
^'  Parent  of  Parents  !  Ens  Entium  ! 

*'  For  if  •  we  may  compare  infinities,  it 
*'  would  seem  to  require  a  greater  infinity  of 
'^  power  to  cause  the  causes  of  effects,  than  to 
"  cause  the  effects  themselves.  This  idea  is 
"  analogous  to  the  improving  excellence 
"  observable  in  every  part  of  the  creation  ; 
"  such  as  in  the  progressive  increase  of  the 
"  solid  or  habitable  parts  of  the  earth  from 
"  water ;  and  in  the  progressive  increase  of 
"  the  wisdom  and  happiness  of  its  inhabit- 
'*  ants;  and  is  consonant  to  the  idea  of  our 
"  present  situation  being  a  state  of  probation, 
"  which  by  our  exertions  we  may  improve, 
''  and  are  consequejitly  responsible  for  our 
"  actions/' 

No  one  can  avoid  admitting  that  in  these 
considerations,  published  in  1794,  a  clear  ex- 

9 


190  LIFE    OP 

position  is  already  given  of  the  consequences 
of  the  action  of  use  in  its  application  to  the 
theory  of  descent,  and  therefore  of  what  is 
UDJustly  called  Lamarckism.  To  Lamarck  is 
to  be  ascribed  the  great  merit  of  a  further 
elaboration  of  these  ideas,  but  their  true 
originator  and  first  promulgator  appears  to 
have  been  the  elder  Darwin.  AVith  the  most 
perfect  certainty  we  also  at  the  same  time 
have   the    principles  of  a   theory  of   sexual 

m 

selection  laid  down,  as  far  as  the  consequence 
that  the  strongest  male  will  preferently  pro- 
pagate, that  is  to  say,  within  the  same  limits 
in  which  alone  Mantegazza  and  Wallace  are 
willing  to  recognise  sexual  selection.  The 
theory  of  protective  coloration  is  extended  to 
the  eggs  of  birds,  a  discovery  which  has  of 
late  frequently  been  ascribed  to  Wallace. 
Moreover  it  deserves  to  be  indicated  that 
Darwin  regards  sexual  reproduction  as  a 
principal  condition  of  the  advancement  of 
living  creatures,  as  is  also  the  case  with 
many  modern  naturalists'.  It  is  probable,  he 
says,  "  that  if  vegetables  could  only  have 
"been  produced  by  buds  and  bulbs,  and  not 
"  by  sexual  generation,  that  there  would  not 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  191 

^'  at  this  time  have  existed  one  thousandth 
"  part  of  their  present  number  of  species ; 
"  which  have  probably  been  originally  mule- 
**  productions ;  nor  could  any  kind  of  im- 
"  provements  or  change  have  happened  to 
"  them,  except  by  the  difference  of  soil  or 
"  climate."* 

Dr.  Darwin  believed,  moreover,  with  the 
physicians  of  the  last  century,  that  the 
imagination  of  the  parents  being  directed  to 
certain  definite  ideals  might  exert  a  beneficial 
influence  upon  the  young,  which  would  be 
impossible  in  asexual  propagation.  In  a 
similar  sense  the  adherents  of  Geoffroy's 
school  afterwards  thought  that  the  changes  of 
the  world  and  of  the  surrounding  medium 
must  have  acted  more  powerfully  upon  the 
plastic  embryo  than  upon  the  already  mature 
creature. 

A  few  years  after  the  '  Zoonomia,'  Darwin 
published  his  '  Phytologia,'f  in  which  we  also 
find  many  coincidences  with  the  investiga- 

*  *  Zoonomia,'  vol.  i.  xxxix.  G,  2. 

f  '  Phytologia ;  or,  the  philosophy  of  agriculture  and  gardening, 
with  the  theory  of  draining  morasses,  and  with  an  improved 
construction  of  the  drill  plough.'  London,  Johnson,  1800.  In 
German  by  Hebenstreit,  2  vols.     Leipzig,  1801. 


192  LIFE   OF 

tions  of  his  grandson,  esj^ecially  with  regard 
to  artificial  selection.  Nevertheless  we  need 
not  here  go  into  it  in  detail,  as  his  concep- 
tion of  the' vegetable  world  has  already  been 
sufficiently  explained  in  its  main  features  in 
connection  with  the  *  Botanic  Garden '  and 
the  *  Zoonomia/  whilst  some  notice  will  have 
to  be  given  to  it  in  the  consideration  of  his 
last  work  and  the  general  criticism  of  his 
system. 

*The  Temple  of  Nature,'*  dated  at  the 
Priory,  near  Derby,  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1802,  was  published  in  the  year  following  the 
death  of  the  poet  in  a  quarto  volume,  adorned, 
like  the  '  Botanic  Garden,'  with  fine  en- 
gravings. It  is  also  a  didactic  poem,  a  repre- 
sentation in  florid  verses  of  his  conception  of 
the  universe,  fully  matured  during  an  inter- 
val of  ten  years.  In  our  rapid  analysis  we 
can  of  course  only  refer  to  the  novel  points  of 
the  poem. 

In  the  first  canto,  which  deals  with  the 
production  of  life,  &c.,  we  find  a  decided 
insistance  on  the  hypothesis  of  a   Generatio 

*  *  The  Temple  of  Nature ;  or,  the  Origin  of  Society.'  A  Poem. 
London,  1803.     In  German  by  Kraus.     Brunswick,  1808,  8vo. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  193 

cequivoca,  the  necessity  of  whicli  he  maintains 
in  -a  note  occupying  ten  quarto  pages.  In 
the  'Phytologia'  Darwin  had  set  up  the 
hypothesis  that  the  most  ancient  plants. and 
animals  had  been  destitute  of  sex,  and  that 
the  first  sexual  organs  were  formed  only  at  a 
later  period.  The  asexual  propagation  of 
many  plants  and  animals,  such  as  the 
Aphides,  which  periodically  alternates  with 
sexual  generation,  are  reminiscences  of  this 
asexual  state,  and  if  we  then  go  back  still 
further  we  arrive  necessarily  at  the  hypo- 
thesis of  spontaneous  production  : — 

"  Hence  without  parent  by  spontaneous  birth 
Rise  the  first  specks  of  animated  earth." 

The  examples  which  he  adduces  as  probable 
occurrences  of  spontaneous  generation  at  the 
present  day,  such  as  Priestley's  green  matter, 
moulds  and  other  fungi,  &c.,  are  certainly  not 
very  seductive  to  an  unbeliever,  but  the 
acceptance  of  this  hypothesis  ought  now-a- 
days  to  meet  with  fewer  difficulties  than  that 
of  the  rival  hypothesis  of  eternal  cosmical  life. 
As  a  matter  of  course^  as  the  author  remarks, 
we  must  only  assume  spontaneous  generation 


194  LIFE   OF 

for  the  simplest  creatures  of  all ;  all  the 
higher  forms  must  have  been  gradually  pro- 
duced from  these.  This  first  life  originated 
in  the  '*  shoreless  "  sea  : — 

"  Organic  life  beneath  the  shoreless  "waves 
Was  born,  and  nurs'd  in  ocean's  pearJy  caves ; 
First  forms  minute,  unseen  by  spheric  glass. 
Move  on  the  mud,  or  pierce  the  watery  mass ; 
These,  as  successive  generations  bloom. 
New  powers  acquire,  and  larger  limbs  assume ; 
Whence  countless  groups  of  vegetation  spring. 
And  breathing  realms  of  fin,  and  feet,  and  wing." 

In  the  continuation  of  these  verses  (lines 
295-302)  the  author  recalls  to  mind  that  the 
higher  animals,  and  even  "the  image  of 
God,"  commence  their  course  of  life  as  micro- 
scopic creatures  and  points : — 

"  Imperious  man,  who  rules  the  bestial  crowd, 
Of  language,  reason,  and  reflection  proud. 
With  brow  erect  who  scorns  this  earthy  sod, 
And  styles  himself  the  image  of  his  God ; 
Arose  from  rudiments  of  form  and  sense, 
An  embryon  point,  or  microscopic  ens ! " 

Then,  when  mountains  upheaved  by  the 
central  fire,  or  coral  reefs^  first  rose  above  the 
surface  of  the  boundless  sea,  individual  living 
organisms   landed   upon    them,   and  passing 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  195 

througli  an  amphibious  condition,  became 
aerial  creatures.  "  After  islands  or  continents 
"  were  raised  above  the  primeval  ocean,"  he 
says,  in  a  note  on  p.  29,  "great  numbers  of 
"  the  most  simple  animals  would  attempt  to 
"  seek  food  at  the  edges  or  shores  of  the  new 
**  land,  and  might  thence  gradually  become 
''  amphibious  ;  as  is  now  seen  in  the  frog, 
"  who  changes  from  an  aquatic  animal  to  an 
""  amphibious  one  ;  and  in  the  gnat,  which 
"  changes  from  a  natant  to  a  volant  state. 
"  .  .  .  .  Those  [organisms]  situated  on  dry 
**  land  and  immersed  in  dry  air,  may  gradually 
"  acquire  new  powers  to  preserve  their  exist- 
"  ence ;  and  by  innumerable  successive  repro- 
"  ductions  for  some  thousands,  or  perhaps 
"  millions  of  ages,  may  at  length  have  pro- 
"  duced  many  of  the  vegetable  and  animal 
"inhabitants  which  people  the  earth."  As 
the  water-nut  {Trapa  ndtans)  and  many  other 
water  plants,  possess  finely  divided  aquatic 
leaves,  which  may  be  compared  with  the  gills 
of  animals,  and  also  but  little  divided  aerial 
leaves,  comparable  to  the  lungs,  so  does  the 
frog  lose  its  gills  and  become  instead  of  a  fish- 
like aquatic   animal,  an   air-breathing  quad- 


196  LIFE   OF 

ruped.  But  even  the  higher  animals  in  their 
embryonic  development  in  the  egg  or  the 
body  of  the  mother  point  towards  this  origin 
from  humidity. 

"  Still  Nature's  births  enclosed  in  egg  or  seed 
From  the  tall  forest  to  the  lowly  weed, 
Her  beanx  and  beauties,  butterflies  and  -worms, 
Eise  from  aquatic  to  aerial  forms. 
Thus  in  the  womb  the  nascent  infant  layes 
Its  natant  form  in  the  circumfluent  waves ; 
With  perforated  heart  unbreathing  swims. 
Awakes  and  stretches  all  its  recent  limbs ; 
With  gills  placental  seeks  the  arterial  flood. 
And  drinks  pure  ether  from  its  mother's  blood." 

(Canto  i.  1.  385-394) 

In  the  first  canto  the  poet  siugs  of  the 
original  production  of  life ;  the  second  has  the 
'*  Reproduction  of  Life  "  for  its  subject.  In  a 
note  upon  this  canto  a  question  comes  under 
discussion  for  the  first  time  in  the  works  of 
the  elder  Darwin,  which  his  celebrated  grand- 
son first  settled  experimentally,  and  one  of 
his  great-grandsons  (George  Darwin)  has 
made  the  subject  of  thorough  investigation, 
namely  the  advantage  of  cross-fertilization 
and  the  mischief  of  inbreeding. 

Dr.  Darwin  says : — "  It  may  be  probably 
"  useful  occasionally  to  intermix  seeds  from 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  197 

^^  different  situations  together ;  as  the  anther- 
"  dust  is  liable  to  pass  from  one  plant  to 
"  another  in  its  vicinity  ;  and  by  these  means 
*^  the  new  seeds  or  plants  may  be  amended, 
"  like  the  marriages  of  animals  into  different 
"  families. 

"  As  the  sexual  progeny  of  vegetables  are 
"  thus  less  liable  to  hereditary  diseases  than 
"  the  solitary  progenies,  so  it  is  reasonable 
"  to  conclude,  that  the  sexual  progenies  of 
"  animals  may  be  less  liable  to  hereditary 
"  diseases,  if  the  marriages  are  into  different 
"  families,  than  if  into  the  same  family ;  this 
"  has  long  been  supposed  to  be  true,  by  those 
"  who  breed  animals  for  sale ;  since  if  the 
*'  male  and  female  be  of  different  tempera- 
"  ments,  as  these  are  extremes  of  the  animal 
"  system,  the}^  may  counteract  each  other ; 
'*  and  certainly  where  both  parents  are  of 
"  families,  which  are  afflicted  with  the  same 
''  hereditary  disease,  it  is  more  likely  to 
"  descend  to  their  posterity.  .  .  .  Finally  the 
"  art  to  improve  the  sexual  progeny  of  either 
**  vegetables  or  animals  must  consist  in 
"  choosing  the  most  perfect  of  both  sexes, 
"  that  is  the  most  beautiful  in  respect  to  the 


198  LIFE   OF 

'  body,  and  the  most  ingenious  in  respect  to 
'  the  mind ;  but  where  one  sex  is  given, 
*  whether  male  or  female,  to  improve  a  progeny 
^  from  that  person  may  consist  in  choosing  a 
'  partner  of  a  contrary  temperament.  As 
^  many  families  become  gradually  extinct 
'  by  hereditary  diseases,  as  by  scrofula, 
'  consumption,  epilepsy,  mania,  it  is  often 
'  hazardous  to  marry  an  heiress,  as  she  is 
'  not  unfrequently  the  last  of  a  diseased 
'  family."* 

His  great  grandson,  George  Darwin,  has 
attempted  to  demonstrate  by  statistics  these 
suppositions,  which  indeed  have  been  often 
expressed,  but  found  that  in  man  no  great 
injury  could  be  ascertained  statistically  to 
be  produced  by  family  marriages,  probably 
in  consequence  of  the  very  different  condi- 
tions under  which  cousins  are  frequently 
brought  up. 

We  now  pass  over  a  hundred  verses,  and  see 
what  the  author  has  to  s'^y  in  a  note  on  the 
Origin  of  Man.  *'It  has  been  supposed  by 
"  some,"  he  says,  'Hhat  mankind  were  formerly 
"  quadrupeds  as  well  as  hermaphrodites ;  and 

♦  *  Temple  of  Nature,*  Additional  Notes,  pp.  44,  45, 


ERASMUS    DARWIN.  199 

"  that  some  parts  of  the  body  are  not  yet  so 
**  convenient  to  an. erect  attitude  as  to  a  hori- 
"  zontal  one ;  as  the  fundus  of  the  bladder 
"in  an  erect  posture  is  not  exactly  over  the 
*'  insertion  of  the  urethra;  whence  it  is  sel- 
*'  dom  completely  evacuated,  and  thus  renders 
"  mankind  more  subject  to  the  stone,  than  if 
"  he  had  preserved  his  horizontality ;  these 
"  philosophers,  with  Buffon  and  He^vetius, 
'*  seem  to  imagine  that  mankind  arose  from 
"  one  family  of  monkeys  on  the  banks  of  the 
"  Mediterranean ;  who  accidentally  had  learned 
"  to  use  the  adductor  poUicis,  or  that  strong 
"  muscle  which  constitutes  the  ball  of  the 
"  thumb,  and  draws  the  point  of  it  to  meet 
"  the  points  of  the  fingers  ;  which  common 
"  monkeys  do  not ;  and  that  this  muscle  gradu- 
"  ally  increased  in  size,  strength,  and  activity, 
*^  in  successive  generations ;  and  by  this  im- 
"  proved  use  of  the  sense  of  touch,  that 
"  monkeys  acquired  clear  ideas,  and  gradually 
"  became  men."* 

The  great  part  performed  by  the  hand  and 
its  improved  sense  of  touch  is  specially  de- 
scribed in  the  third  canto,  which  is  devoted 

*  *  Temple  of  Nature,'  note  p.  54. 


200  LIFE   OF 

to  the  development  and  progress  of  the  human 
mind.  Animals  excel  man  in  being  endowed 
with  many  kinds  of  weapons  and  in  having 
the  senses  more  highly  developed,  but  the 
influence  of  the  hand  in  forming  the  mind 
more  than  compensates  for  all : — 

"  Proud  man  alone  in  wailing  weakness  bom, 
No  homs  protect  him,  and  no  plumes  adorn ; 
No  finer  powers  of  nostril,  ear,  or  eye, 
Teach  the  young  Reasoner  to  pursue  or  fly. — 
Nerved  with  fine  touch  above  the  bestial  throngs. 
The  hand,  first  gift  of  Heaven !  to  man  belongs ; 
Untipt  with  claws  the  circling  fingers  close. 
With  rival  points  the  bending  thumbs  oppose, 
Trace  the  nice  lines  of  Form  with  sense  refined, 
And  clear  ideas  charm  the  thinking  mind. 
Whence  the  fine  organs  of  the  touch  impart 
Ideal  figure,  source  of  every  art ; 
Time,  motion,  number,  sunshine  or  the  storm. 
But  mark  varieties  in  Nature's /orm." 

(Canto  iii.  1. 117-130.) 

In  young  dogs,  adds  the  author,  the 
lips  are  the  principal  organs  which  enable 
them  to  acquire  an  idea  of  the  forms  of 
things ;  and  in  young  children  also  the  lips 
play  a  great  part  in  the  same  way.  He  then 
describes  very  fully  the  functions  of  the  im- 
pulse of  imitation  in  man,  attributing  to  it 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  201 

the  first  origin  of  all  moral  actions,  languages 
and  arts. 

The  "  Muse  of  Mimicry,"  as  Darwin,  in  what 
follows,  repeatedly  calls  the  love  of  imitation  in 
man,  gave  rise  especially  in  his  opinion  to  the 
first  language,  and  the  first  writing,  which 
was  a  picture-writing. 

On  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  language, 
the  learned  Lord  Monboddo's  anonymously 
published  work  ('  Of  the  Origin  and  Progress 
of  Language '),  in  three  volumes,  had  at  that 
time  been  in  existence  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  In  this  book  he  shows,  by  the  study 
of  animals  and  deaf-mutes,  in  opposition  to 
recent  observers,  that  without  speech  it  is 
possible  to  think  and  to  form  ideas,  for  speech- 
less animals  manifestly  have  ideas  (vol.  i. 
p.  217  et  seq.).  Signs  and  musically  varied 
cries  formed  the  commencement  (i.  p.  476). 
Articulation  was  acquired  by  imitation  of 
natural  sounds,  e.g.  the  voices  of  birds 
(v.  p.  490).  Even  such  new  conceptions  as 
that  of  A.  Maurer,  that  primitive  speech  was 
formed  not  by  monosyllabic  but  polysyllabic 
words,  are  already  to  be  found  here  (i.  pp.  507 
et  seq,).     It  is  decidedly  much  to  be  wished 


202  LIFE   OF 

that  some  philologist  would  analyse  this  for- 
gotten book  from  the  modern  standpoint.  We 
are  not  sufficiently  skilled  to  examine  how 
much  novelty  there  may  be  in  Dr.  Darwin's 
studies  in  this  department,  and  must  content 
ourselves  with  calling  attention  to  the  detailed 
considerations  which  he  gives  in  his  notes,  in 
connection  with  which  we  may  here  reproduce 
one  of^the  most  characteristic  passages  in  the 
poem : — 

"  When  strong  desires  or  soft  sensations  move 
The  astonished  Intellect  to  rage  or  love ; 
Associate  tribes  of  fibrous  motions  rise, 
Flush  the  red  cheek,  or  light  the  laughing  eyes. 
Whence  ever-active  Imitation  finds 
The  ideal  trains,  that  pass  in  kindred  minds ; 
Her  mimic  arts  associate  thoughts  excite 
And  the  first  Language  enters  at  the  sight." 

(Canto  iii.  1.  335-342.) 

After  showing  how  true  language  has 
originated  from  the  language  of  the  emotions 
and  gestures,  from  the  first  exclamations, 

("  Association's  mystic  power  combines 
Internal  passions  •with  external  signs.") 

he  traces  tbe  accentuation  and  articulation 
of  sounds,  the  formation  of  fundamental 
words   and   abstract    ideas,   the    growth    of 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  203 

intellect  intimately  connected  with  these  pro- 
cesses, and  the  origin  of  the  social  virtues  or 
general  morality  founded  upon  social  inter- 
course. The  fundamental  principle  of  the 
latter  is  best  expressed  in  the  words  of  Christ, 
"  Love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself." 

The  fourth  canto^  entitled  "Of  Good  and 
Evil,"  represents  the  spiritual  as  a  stage  of 
development  of  the  material  world,  the  sum  of 
the  happiness  and  evil  therein.  About  the 
first  hundred  verses  are  devoted  to  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  pitiless  struggle  for  existence 
which  rages  in  the  air,  on  the  earth,  and  in 
the  water,  making  the  earth,  with  its  inces- 
santly warring  inhabitants,  like  a  vast 
slaughter-house  : — 

"  Air,  earth,  and  ocean,  to  astonish'd  day 
One  scene  of  blood,  one  mighty  tomb  display ! 
From  Hunger's  arm  the  shafts  of  Death  are  hurl'd, 
And  one  great  Slaughter-house  the  warring  world ! " 

(Canto  iv.  1.  63-66.) 

This  description  is  no  mere  passing  notion, 
for  in  his  first  didactic  poem,  *  The  Botanic 
Grarden,'  written  at  least  twenty  years 
before,  this  same  idea  occurs  (p.  28).  Dr. 
Balguy  had  indicated  the  benefits  with  which 
the  great  Author  of  all  things  had  favoured 


204  LIFE   OP 

the  world.  The  young  animal  takes  the 
mother's  breast  with  pleasure,  and  the  mother 
has  pleasure  in  offering  it.  The  seeds  of 
plants,  rich  in  nutritive  material,  serve  animals 
for  food  without  themselves  feeling  pain. 
Against  this  much  too  rose-coloured  conception 
of  the  world,  our  author  protested  at  the  time. 
The  lion  devours  the  lamb,  and  the  latter 
the  living  plants,  whilst  man  eats  both ;  there 
is  nothing  like  peace  in  nature.  In  his  last 
work  this  conception  appears  to  have  been 
much  deepened ;  not  only  do  animals  destroy 
each  other  and  plants,  but  even  the  plants 
struggle  among  themselves  for  soil,  moisture, 
air,  and  light : — 

"  Y(^ !  smiling  Flora  drives  her  armed  car 
Throtigli  the  thick  ranks  of  yegetable  war ; 
Herb,  shrub,  and  tree  with  strong  emotions  rise 
For  light  and  air,  and  battle  in  the  skies ; 
Whose  roots  diverging  with  opposing  toil 
Contend  below  for  moisture  and  for  soil ; 
Eound  the  tall  Elm  the  fluttering  Ivies  bend. 
And  strangle,  as  they  clasp,  their  stmggling  friend ; 
Envenom'd  dews  from  Mancinella  flow, 
And  scald  with  caustic  touch  the  tribes  below ; 
Dense  shadowy  leaves  on  stems  aspiring  borne 
With  blight  and  mildew  thin  the  realms  of  com ; 
And  insect  hordes  with  restless  tooth  devour 
The  unfolded  bud,  and  pierce  the  ravelFd  flower." 

(Canto  iv.  1.  41-54.) 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  205 

Fortunately  living  creatures  often  struggle 
with  each  other  for  the  advantage  of  a  third 
party,  as  when  the  voracious  larvse  of  insects 
which,  after  their  metamorphosis,  live  only 
on  honey,  destroy  the  innumerable  hosts  of 
aphides,  which  otherwise,  from  their  enor- 
mous fertility  would  exterminate  all  vege- 
tation. An  excess  of  the  caterpillars  of  butter- 
flies is  destroyed  by  hymenopterous  insects  ; 
moreover  plants  are  able  to  protect  them- 
selves from  complete  destruction.  Nevertheless 
this  never-resting  struggle  of  all  against  all, 
would  soon  create  desolation,  if  Nature  was 
not  so  exceedingly  fruitful  that  without  such 
a  struggle  nearly  every  creature  would  very 
soon  overrun  the  whole  world  : — 

"  All  these,  increasing  by  successive  birth, 
Would  each  o'erpeople  ocean,  air,  and  earth." 

Here  is  the  great  question  put.  What  is  the 
meaning  for  Nature,  of  this  incessant  struggle 
in  Nature  ?  For  a  moment  we  may  perhaj^s 
expect  to  get  the  solution  of  this  mystery  of 
Nature  from  the  poet  who  liad  come  so  near 
to  it,  but  it  is  only  a  presentiment  of  the  truth, 
not  the  truth  itself.     Thus  he  says  that  the 


206  LIFE   OF 

incessant  struggle  serves  to  increase  the  sum 
of  the  "happiness  of  the  survivors : — 

"  Thus  tlie  tall  moimtams,  that  enclose  the  lands. 
Huge  isles  of  rock,  and  continents  of  sands, 
Whose  dim  extent  eludes  the  inquiring  sight, 
Abe  mighty  monuments  of  past  Delight; 
Shout  round  the  globe,  how  Eeproduction  strives 
With  vanquish'd  Death, — and  Happiness  sukvives; 
How  life  increasing  peoples  every  clime. 
And  young  renascent  Nature  conquers  Time ; 

And  high  in  golden  characters  record 

The  immense  munificence  of  Natuee's  Lord." 

(Canto  iv.  1.  447-456.) 

By  the  increased  happiness  v^hich  arises  from 
the  death  of  those  which  fall  in  the  struggle, 
the  author,  however,  chiefly  understands  that 
fresh  life  blooms  from  dull  age,  and  that,  as 
both  the  number  and  the  size  of  living  animals 
increase  with  the  decrease  of  the  water,  the 
sum  of  enjoyment  of  life  must  also  increase, 
until  the  earth  is  once  more  reduced  to  its 
elements,  in  order,  through  chaos,  to  com- 
mence a  new  cycle.*  The  principle  of  the 
reconversion  of  the  world  into  chaos,  also 
supported  by  modern  physics,  is  laid  down  by 
the   author   in   his  '  Botanic   Grarden  '    with 

*  *  Temple  of  Nature,'  p.  166  note. 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  207 

such  force  that  I  cannot  refrain  from  giving 
this  passage  as  a  final  example  of  his  poetical 
power : — 

" Roll  on,  ye  Stars !  exult  in  youthful  prime, 

Mark  with  bright  curves  the  printless  steps  of  time ; 
Near  and  more  near  your  beamy  cars  approach. 
And  lessening  orbs  on  lessening  orbs  encroach ; 
Flowers  of  the  sky !  ye  too  to  age  must  yield. 
Frail  as  your  silken  sisters  of  the  field ! 
Star  after  star  from  Heaven's  high  arch  shall  rush. 
Suns  sink  on  Suns,  and  systems  systems  crush, 
Headlong,  extinct,  to  one  dark  centre  fall, 
And  Death,  and  Night,  and  Chaos  mingle  all ! 

Till  o'er  the  wreck,  emerging  from  the  storm. 

Immortal  Nature  lifts  her  changeful  form, 
Mounts  from  her  funeral  pyre  on  wings  of  flame, 
And  soars  and  shines,  another  and  the  same." 

In  his  '  Phytologia '  (xix.  7)  the  author 
has  treated  still  more  in  detail  the  question 
of  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  the  sum  of 
happiness  originating  therefrom,  and  he  indi- 
cates in  the  note  last  cited  that  the  faculty  of 
higher  enjoyment  increases  with  the  height  of 
organization  of  the  creatures.  He  had  not 
indeed  solved  the  question,  but  his  remarks 
upon  it  have  directed  the  eyes  of  many  of 
his  readers  to  the  struggle  for  existence,  and 
in  this  we  may  perhaps  find  the  explanation 
of  the  remarkable  fact  that  so  many  English 


208  LIFE    OF 

naturalists  (Wells,  Matthew,  Charles  Darwin, 
Wallace,  &c.)  have  one  after  the  other  set  up 
the  principle  of  natural  selection.  This  shows 
the  power  of  the  poet  to  excite  the  fancy  even 
of  others  ;  and  a  happy  fate  has  arranged  that 
the  true  heir  has  obtained  the  greatest  benefit 
from  the  bequest. 

The '  Temple  of  Nature '  contributed  greatly 
to  enhance  Darwin's  poetical  fame,  for  the 
representation  is  more  rounded,  and  less  over- 
grown with  allegorical  comparisons,  than  in 
his  first  didactic  poems.  But  how  little  the 
philosophy  expressed  in  it  satisfied  the  readers 
of  that  time  may  be  seen  from  a  criticism 
which  was  given  of  the  poem  in  the  *  Edin- 
burgh Review'  (vol.  ii.  1803,  pp.  491-506). 
In  it  occurs  (p.  501)  the  following  remark, 
which  is  interesting  in  two  ways  : — "  If  his 
"  fam{'<  be  destined  in  anything  to  outlive 
"  the  fluctuating  fashion  of  the  day,  it  is  on 
"  his  merit  as  a  poet  that  it  is  likely  to  rest ; 
*'  and  his  reveries  in  science  have  probably 
"  no  other  chance  of  being  saved  from 
"  oblivion,  but  by  having  been  '  married  to 
"  immortal  verse.'  " 

This  full  recognition  of  the  author's  poetical 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  209 

merits  contrasts  curiously  enough  with  the 
sharp  judgment  of  a  later  critic,*  who,  I  am 
afraid,  has  criticized  himself  in  it.  "  Nothing 
"  in  them,"  he  says  of  the  verses,  "  is  done  in 
"  passion  and  power ;  but  all  by  filing,  and 
"  scraping,  and  rubbing,  and  other  pains- 
"  taking.  Every  line  is  as  elaborately 
''  polished  and  sharpened  as  a  lancet ;  and 
"  the  most  ejBfective  paragraphs  have  the  air 
"  of  a  lot  of  those  bright  little  instruments 
**  arranged  in  rows,  with  their  blades  out,  for 
"  sale.  You  feel  as  if  so  thick  an  array  of 
"  points  and  edges  demanded  careful  handling, 
"  and  that  your  fingers  are  scarcely  safe  in 
"  coming  near  them."  We  see  at  once  that 
the  critic  cannot  forgive  the  poet  for  having 
been  a  doctor ;  regards  thought  as  a  me- 
chanical process,  and  j^o^try  as  mechanical 
work,  a  higher  kind  ol  "  pin-making."  After 
the  critic  has  thus  shot  his  arrows,  however, 
he  is  obliged  to  admit  that  in  spite  of  all  a 
true  poetical  fire  lives  in  these  didactic  poems 
and  frequently  breaks  forth.      **No  writer," 

*  George  L.  Craik.  'A  Compendious  History  of  English 
Literature,  and  of  the  English  Language,  from  the  Norman 
Conquest.'  2nd  ed.  vol.  ii.  pp.  382,  383.  8vo.  London, 
1861 


210  LIFE    OF 

sajs  he,  "  has  surpassed  him  in  the  luminous 
"  representation  of  visible  objects  in  verse  ; 
"  his  descriptions  have  the  distinctness  of 
*'  drawings  by  the  pencil^  with  the  advantage 
"  of  conveying,  by  their  harmonious  words, 
"  many  things  that  no  pencil  can  paint/' 

We  will  be  more  just,  and  say,  that  since 
the  time  of  Lucretius,  hardly  any  attempt  to 
combine  the  opposing  spheres  of  science  and 
poetry  in  a  didactic  poem,  and  to  put  forth 
therein  entire  systems,  has  been  so  successful 
as  in  Darwin's  works  ;  but  such  poems  are 
rather  dry  in  themselves,  and  will  always  find 
fewer  admirers  than  poetical  efforts  of  other 
kinds.  Nevertheless  even  if  the  body  of  these 
poems  should  prove  to  be  mortal,  an  immortal 
spirit  lives  in  them,  and  it  is  this  (to  turn  the 
words  of  the  Edinburgh  Reviewer  the  other 
way  round)  that  will  keep  them  above  water 
for  all  time. 

Now,  at  the  conclusion  of  our  analysis,  it 
may  be  as  well  to  take  a  general  view  of  the 
system  established  by  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin, 
in  order  to  arrive  at  a  clear  perception  of  the 
advance  for  which  the  conception  of  the 
universe  is  indebted  to  him,  and  of  the  points 


ERASMUS   DARWIN".  211 

in  which  he  erred.  And  here  we  must  in 
the  first  place  admit  that  he  was  the  first  who 
proposed  and  consistently  carried  out,  a  well- 
rounded  theory  with  regard  to  the  development 
of  the  living  tvorld,  a  merit  which  shines  forth 
most  briUiantly  when  we  compare  with  it  the 
vacillating  and  confused  attempts  of  Buffon, 
Linnaeus  and  Gothe.  It  is  the  idea  of  a  power 
working  from  within  the  organisms  to  im- 
prove their  natural  position ;  and  thus,  out  of 
the  impulses  of  individual  needs,  to  work  to- 
wards the  perfection  of  Nature  as  a  whole. 

In  contrast  to  the  old  theory  that  all  adap- 
tation to  purpose  in  the  arrangements  of  the 
world  was  fore-calculated  and  fore-ordained, 
and  that  all  organisms  were  merely  wheels  in 
a  gigantic  machine  made  once  for  all,  and  in- 
papable  of  improvement,  this  new  view  is  so 
grand  that  it  deserved  a  higher  appreciation 
than  it  has  ever  met  with.  The  Cartesio- 
Paleyan  comparison  of  Nature  with  a  great 
piece  of  clockwork  (a  fundamentally  mistaken 
comparison,  because  every  complete  mechani- 
cal work  has  only  been  attained  by  many 
gradual  improvements  in  the  course  of  genera- 
tions), is  finally  got  rid  of  by  it.     As  regards 


212  LIFE   OF 

the  animal  world,  to  wliich  we  must  ascribe 
will  and  active  efforts,  the  idea  is  so  suitable, 
that  Lamarck,  who  was  evidently  a  disciple 
of  Darwin,  has  worked  it  out  in  all  directions, 
and  thus  originated  a  system  which  is  not 
only  still  appreciated^  but  is  even  now  con- 
stantly being  further  elaborated,  inasmuch  as 
many  naturalists  of  the  present  day,  as  has 
already  been  stated,  ascribe  to  birds,  for  ex- 
ample, the  faculty  of  enhancing'  the  beauty  of 
their  plumage  by  wishes  and  efforts,  and  so 
forth.  This  is  true  Darwinism  of  the  last 
century — Darwinism  of  the  old  school. 

This  Darwinism  has  been  criticized  by 
no  one  so  well  as  by  its  author  himself, 
when  he  applied  it  with  strict  logic  to  the 
development  of  plants.  To  be  able  to  do  this 
he  was  obliged  to  attribute  mental  functions 
to  plants,  and  to  endow  them  with  the  faculty 
of  striving  for  a  purpose.  Even  in  the 
'  Botanic  Garden '  he  therefore  declared  the 
necessity  of  admitting  that  plants  possess  the 
sense  of  heat  and  cold,  of  moisture  and  dry- 
ness, of  light  and  darkness,  a  sense  of  touch, 
and  amatory  desires,  besides  the  power  of  the 
roots   to   select   suitable   nourishment.      For 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  213 

these  reasons  he  also  specially  occupied  him- 
self with  the  study  of  the  so-called  sensitive 
plants,  and  of  insect-capturing  plants,  the 
most  remarkable  of  which  {Mimosa,  Hedy- 
sarum  gyrans,  Dioncea  muscipula,  Apocynum 
androsoemifolium)  he  had  figured  on  fine 
quarto  plates  to  illustrate  the  '  Botanic 
G-arden.' 

In  the  '  Zoonomia '  he  repeated  these  views  ; 
and  in  the  first  part  of  the  '  Phytologia,'  which 
treats  of  the  physiology  of  plants,  he  is  much 
occupied  with  the  search  for  vegetable  organs 
representing  the  organs  of  sense^  nerves,  and 
ganglia,  of  animals.  Nay,  he  even  thought 
that  an  organ  analogous  to  the  central 
nervous  apparatus  of  animals,  a  vegetable 
brain,  could  not  be  wanting ;  and  as  he  rightly 
compared  the  composite  vegetable  body  to  a 
coral-stock,  he  was  obliged  to  ascribe  such 
an  organ  to  each  individual  bud.  For  as  he 
ascribed  to  them  (and  according  to  his  theory 
was  compelled  to  ascribe  to  them)_,.  besides 
the  power  of  nourishing  and  propagating 
themselves,  also  that  of  endeavouring  to  im- 
prove their  position  in  life  in  accordance  with 
external    conditions,  he    logically   concluded 

10 


214  LIFE    OF 

that  lie  mtist  for  this  purpose  postulate  an 
organ  of  self-help,  a  sensorium. 

In  order  to  penetrate  more  clearly  into  the 
course  of  his  ideas  upon  this  point,  I  may  be 
allowed  to  quote,  in  part,  a  passage  from  the 
*  Phytologia '  (Sect.  xiv.  3^  2),  and  the  rather 
because  it  at  the  same  time  fills  a  gap  pur- 
posely left  in  the  exposition  of  his  philoso- 
phical system. 

"  There  appears,"  he  says,  '*  to  be  a  power 
'*  impressed  on  organized  bodies  by  the  great 
"  author  of  all  things  by  which  they  not  only 
"  increase  in  size  and  strength  from  their 
"  embryon  state  to  their  maturity,  and  oc- 
"  casionally  cure  their  accidental  diseases,  and 
"  repair  their  accidental  injuries,  but  also  a 
^^  power  of  producing  armour  to  prevent  those 
*'  more  violent  injuries,  which  would  other- 
"  wise  destroy  them.  Of  this  last  kind  are 
*'  the  poisonous  juices  of  some  plants,  as  of 
*^  atropa  belladonna,  deadly  nightshade,  hy- 
"  oscyamus,    hen-bane,    cyjioglossum,   hound's 

*'  tongue Some    vegetables   have 

"  acquired  an  armour,  which  lessens,  though 
*''  it  does  not  totally  prevent,  the  injuries  of 
"  this  animal  [the  aphis].     This  is  most  con- 


ERASMUS   DARWIN.  215 

spicuous  on  the  stems  and  floral  leaves  of 
moss-roses,  and  on  the  young  shoots  and 
leaf-stalks  of  nnt  trees.  Both  these  are 
covered  with  thickset  bristles,  which  termi- 
nate in  globular  heads,  and  not  only  prevent 
the  aphis  from  surrounding  them  in  such 
great  numbers,  and  from  piercing  their 
vessels  so  easily,  but  also  secrete  from  the 
gland,  with  which  I  suspect  them  to  be 
terminated,  a  juice,  which  is  inconvenient  or 
deleterious  to  the  insect  which  touches  it.* 
.  .  .  The  essential  oils  are  all  deleterious  to 
certain  insects,  and  hence  their  use  in  the 
vegetable  economy,  being  produced  in 
flowers  or  leaves  to  protect  them  from  the 
depredations  of  their  voracious  enemies." 
I  do  not  think  I  am  deceiving  myself  in 
saying  that  this  merely  logical  extension  of 
his  theory  to  the  vegetable  kingdom  has 
robbed  it  of  the  efficacy  which  it  might  have 
attained  if  limited  to  the  animal  kingdom. 
The  small  amount  of  interest  excited  by  the 
attempts,  both  of  the  elder    Darwin  and   of 

*  Corresponding  observations  upon  glandular  hairs  which,  by 
their  sticky  exudations,  protect  young  shoots  of  plants  from  the 
attacks  of  insects,  have  lately  been  made  by  Mr.  Francis  Darwin 
and  by  Dr.  Fritz  Miiller.     See  '  Kosmos,'  Bd.  i.  p.  354. 


216  LIFE   OF   ERASMUS   DARWIN. 

Lamarck,  at  the  solution  of  the  world-enigma, 
shows  us  that  thej  were  not  adapted  to  satisfy 
men's  minds.  They  explain  the  adaptation 
to  purpose  of  organisms  by  an  obscure  im- 
pulse or  sense  of  what  is  purpose-like ;  and 
yet  even  with  regard  to  man  we  are  in  the 
habit  of  saying,  that  one  can  never  know 
what  so  and  so  is  good  for.  The  purpose-like 
is  that  which  approves  itself^  and  not  always 
that  which  is  struggled  for  by  obscure  impulses 
and  desires.  Just  in  the  same  way  the  beauti- 
ful is  what  pleases. 

Erasmus  Darwin's  system  was  in  itself  a 
most  significant  first  ste]D  in  the  path  of  know- 
ledge which  his  grandson  has  opened  up  for 
us,  but  to  wish  to  revive  it  at  the  jDi^esent 
day,  as  has  actually  been  seriously  attempted^ 
shows  a  weakness  of  thought  and  a  mental 
anachronism  which  no  one  can  envy. 


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The  International  Scientific  Series  is  entirely  an  American  pro- 
ject, and  was  originated  and  organized  by  Dr.  E.  L.  Youmans,  who  spent 
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lishers. 

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The  works  will  be  issued  simultaneously  in  New  York,  London,  Paris, 
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VOLUMES    IN    PREPARATION. 

THE   BRAIN"  AS   AN  ORGAN  OF  MIND.     By  H.  Charlton  Bab- 
TiAN,  M.D.    (In press.) 

THE  CRAYFISH:    An  lutroduction  to  the  Study  of  Zoology.     By  Prof. 
HuxLET.    {Inx>ress.) 

THE   STARS.     By  Prof.  Secchi,  late  Director  of  the  Observatory  at  Rome. 
(Jn  press.) 

THE  SUN.     By  Prof.  Yottnq,  of  Princeton  College.    With  numerous  IIIub- 
trations. 

GENERAL,  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  MUSCLES  AND  NERVES.     By 
Prof.  J.  Rosenthal,  of  the  University  of  Erlangen. 

PSYCHOMETRY.    By  Francis  Galton,  F.  R.  S. 

ANIMAL.  INTELLIGENCE.    By  George  J.  Romanes,  F.  L.  S. 

ON  ANTS  AND  BEES.    By  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Bart.,  F.  R.  S. 

FORMS  OF  LIFE  AND  OTHER  COSMICAL  CONDITIONS.     By 

P.  Bert,  Professor  of  Physiologj',  Paris. 


The  following  distinguished  scientists  have  already  contributed  to  the  series: 
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H.  Maudslet,  M.  D.  ;  John  William  Draper.  M.  D.,  LL.  D.;  M.  J.  Berkeley; 
Prof  W.  D.  Whitney,  of  Yale  College;  W.  Stanley  Jevons,  M.  A.,  F.  R.  S.;  J. 
Norman  Lockyer;  Prof.  Robert  Thurston,  A.  M.,  C.  E.;  Alexander  Bain, 
LL.D.;  Prof.  Ogden  N.  Rood;  Walter  Bagehot;  Edward  Smith,  M.  D.;  Prof. 
JopiAH  P.  Cooke,  Jr.,  of  Harvard  Univereity;  J.  B.  Pettigrew,  M.  D.;  Prof. 
Sheldon  Amos;  E.  J.  Marey;  Prof.  Oscar  Schmidt;  Dr.  Hermann  Yogel; 
Dr.  E.  Lommel;  M.  Van  Beneden;  Prof.  P.  Schutzenberqer  ;  Prof.  J.  Bern- 
stein ;  Prof.  PiETRO  Blaserna  ;  Prof.  A.  De  Quatrefaqes. 


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Spencer^s  Synthetic  Philosophy, 
»•  ♦ » 

THE  DATA  OF  ETHICS. 

By  HERBERT  SPENCER. 


1  vol.,  12mo.    Cloth.    288  pag-es.       -       -       .       Price,  $1.50. 


*' Every  year  seems  to  •widen  the  iDfluence  of  that  philosophical  inquirer,  in  whom, 
long  ago,  J.  S.  Mill  recognized  one  of  the  most  vigorous  as  well  as  boldest  thinkers 
that  English  speculation  has  produced.  As  the  majestic  outlines  of  his  desijrn  have 
been  disclosed,  there  has  been  a  growng  willingness  to  recognize  not  only  the  breadth 
and  solidity  of  his  conclusions,  but  their  regulative  bearing  on  human  conduct  and  the 
practical  concerns  of  life.  It  remained  for  the  author  to  define  the  final  outcome  of 
his  philosophy,  and  this  has  been  done  in  the  present  work."— iVez/;  Yoik  Sun. 

"Mr.  Spencer's  main  purpose  is  to  ascertain  and  describe  the  objective  qualities  of 
right  conduct,  the  external  signs  of  the  highest  virtue,  and  to  show  their  coincidence 
with  the  results  of  progressive  evolution.  This  he  has  done  in  the  course  of  the  pro- 
found and  exhaustive  analysis,  of  which  he  is  so  consummate  a  master,  of  vigorous 
but  singularly  lucid  reasonings,  and  of  ample  and  impressive  illustrations  fi-om  every 
department  of  Nature."— iVew  York  Tribune. 

"We  think  that  the  verdict  on  this  book  of  all  candid  readers  will  be  that  it  accom- 
plishes what  it  professses  to  accomplish— it  finds  for  the  principles  of  right  and  wrong 
in  conduct  a  scientific  basis ;  and,  if  this  be  true,  it  is  needless  to  say  that  its  eflfect  will 
be  to  give  a  new  imptdse  and  a  new  direction  to  ethical  studies.''''— Popular  Science 
MontMy. 

"  However  widely  many  will  differ  with  Mr.  Spencer  as  to  some  of  his  generaliza- 
tions, and  especially  as  to  his  great  underljing  theory,  all  must  adrai<"e  and  value  the 
clearness  and  fairness  of  his  reasoning,  his  wonderful  masterj'  of  facts  in  all  domains 
of  science,  the  keenness  of  his  philosophic  insight,  and  the  singular  beauty  of  his 
ethical  teachings.  His  impress  upon  the  speculative  thought  of  the  age  is  undoubtedly 
greater  than  that  of  any  other  living  man." — Chicago  Evening  Journal. 

"As  examples  of  lucid,  elegant  style,  Mr.  Spencer's  writings  deserve  careful  study; 
but  beyond  and  above  mere  form  he  is  deserving  of  higher  praise.  Lucid  stj^le  ac- 
companies a  wonderfully  trained  brain,  filled  with  almost  all  kinds  of  contemporary 
knowledge,  thoughts  that  reach,  surround,  and  master  the  loftiest  subjects,  a  love  of 
symmetry  that  connects  masses  of  heterogeneous  and  conflicting  thoughts  into  perfect 
order  and  harmony,  and  an  almost  miraculous  patience  that  is  an  attribute  of  genius 
alone."— Boston  Gazette. 

"This  book  is  constructed  upon  a  clear  and  sjTmnetrical  plan,  and  is  a  model  of 
lucid  and  terse  treatment.  Such  are  the  author's  richness  and  variety  of  knowledge 
that  he  is  able  to  illustrate  at  every  step  the  abstract  principles  which  he  lays  do^vn  by 
concrete  instances  cited  from  Sociology  or  the  physical  sciences.  In  no  chapter  does 
his  grasp  of  the  subject  appear  more  firm  than  in  that  on  the  '  Evolution  of  Conduct.' '' 
-Baltiinxyre  Gazette. 


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